YIELD AND QUALITY OF GROUNDNUT SEED AS INFLUENCED BY LIGHT AND BORON

Abstract

Boron is an important micronutrient that enhances vegetative and reproductive growth as well as yield and quality of crops, like groundnut. Light also plays an important role for pegging of groundnut. There has been little information on the application of boron and light in groundnut in Bangladesh. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to study the effects of light and boron on the yield and quality of groundnut at the central experimental farm, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh during March to July, 2014. Treatments consisted of two groundnut varieties (V 1 =Dhaka 1 and V 2 = BARI Chinabadam 8), three levels of boron (B 0 = Control, B 1 = 1kg boron ha -1 and B 2 = 2-kg boron ha -1 ), and two levels of light, viz., normal day light (L 0 ) and normal day light + 6-h extended red light at night (L). Result revealed that yield of groundnut was significantly influenced by variety, boron and light where L 0 , B 2 , V 2 and L 0 B 2 V 2 gave the highest seed yield (1.37, 1.53, 1.39 and 1.82 t ha , respectively). The highest seed yield of the interaction treatment was attributed to the highest number of pods plant -1 (120.67), pod weight plant -1 (59 g) and 100 seed weight (59.58 g). Number of branches plant -1 had a positive relationship with pod yield (R 2 =0.255). Although imposition of light did not increase seed yield, it increased seed protein content (39.98 %), oil content (50.94 %) and vitamin E content (10.61 mg/100 g seed) in V 2 under highest boron dose. -1