GROWTH AND YIELD OF SOYBEAN AS INFLUENCED BY ADDED UREA AND BORON FOLIAR FERTILIZATION

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at the Agronomy research field, Sher–e- Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period from 21 December, 2016 to 6 April, 2017 to investigate the effect of urea and boron application as foliar spray on growth and yield of soybean. The experiment conducted with two soybean varieties viz. V = BARI soybean 5 and V 2 = BARI soybean 6 and five fertilizer application viz. T = Recommended fertilizer (RF), T = RF + Foliar spray (FS) of water at flower initiation (FI), T 3 2 = RF + Urea (2%) FS at FI, T ii

4 = RF + Boron (1%) FS at FI, T = RF + Urea (2%) + Boron (1%) FS at FI. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications. Variety and fertilizer application were assigned in main and sub plots, respectively. Results showed that BARI Soybean-6 gave maximum dry weight plant

(11.55 g), pods plant -1 (57.47), pod length (3.74 cm), seeds pod -1 (2.87), 100- seed weight (13.41 g) and seed yield (2.13 t ha -1 ). The highest dry weight plant -1 1 (59.67), pod length (3.80 cm), seeds pod -1 5 1 (12.18 g), pods plant (2.89), 100 seed weight (13.45 g) and seed yield (2.17 t ha -1 ) were obtained from treatment T i. e, (RF+ Urea (2%) + Boron (1%) FS at FI. The highest dry weight plant -1 5 (12.86 g), pods plant -1 (63.67), pod length (3.91 cm), seeds pod -1 (3.05), and100- seed weight (14.03 g) was recorded from the treatment combination of V 2 T . The highest yield was also produced by the treatment combination V 2 T 5 (2.33 t ha -1 5 ) as it was statistically identical with V 2 T 2 (2.05 t ha -1 ), V ) and V 2 T 4 (2.12 t ha -1 ) treatment combinations. Inclusion of urea (2%) + boron (1%) or urea (2%) or boron (1%) singly along with recommended fertilizer was efficient in improving yield by 27-44% over RF irrespective of varieties. The results revealed that BARI soybean 6 along with foliar treatment either T (RF+ Urea (2%) + Boron (1%) FS at FI) or T 3 (RF + Urea (2%) FS at FI) or T 4 5 (RF + Boron (1%) FS at FI) may be noted as better management for increased yield of Soybean.