SABAVAT SANDHYA SREE*, SHARU S. R., USHA C. THOMAS AND GAYATHRI G.
Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), India
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), India
*(e-mail: sandhyasandy62477@gmail.com)
(Received: 20 September 2024; Accepted: 28 September 2024)
SUMMARY
The present study entitled “Nitrogen management and foliar nutrition in fodder sorghum” was undertaken at College of Agriculture, Vellayani, during 2023-24. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of nano urea on growth, yield and economics of fodder sorghum. The field experiment carried out from December 2023 – February 2024, was laid out in Randomised Block Design with 13 treatments, replicated thrice. The treatments comprised of nitrogen management and foliar nutrition. The treatments were T1 : 75% Recommended dose of nitrogen RDN + nano urea (0.2%); T2 : 75% RDN + nano urea (0.4%); T3: 75% RDN + nano urea (0.6%); T4: 100% RDN + nano urea (0.2%); T5: 100% RDN + nano urea (0.4%); T6: 100% RDN + nano urea (0.6%); T7: 75% RDN + urea spray (2%); T8: 100% RDN + urea spray (2%); T9: nano urea (0.2%) alone; T10: nano urea (0.4%) alone; T11: nano urea (0.6%) alone; T12: KAU POP; T13: control (without nitrogen). The fertilizer recommendation followed was 60:40:20 kg NPK ha-1, along with the recommended dose of farm yard manure (10 t ha-1). Foliar spray of nano urea and urea were applied each at 20 DAS and 40 DAS. Full P and K were applied as basal. The results revealed that 100% RDN along with foliar spray of nano urea 0.4% (T5) recorded higher growth and yield attributes such as plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf area per plant, leaf area index, number of internodes per plant, length of internode, 50 per cent flowering, green fodder yield, dry fodder yield and per day productivity. Similarly, higher gross return, net return and BCR were also recorded in T5 and were on par with 100% RDN along with foliar spray of nano urea 0.6% (T6).
Key words: Fodder sorghum, nitrogen management, foliar nutrition, nano urea and green fodder yield