MOHAMMAD NABI*, SURESH KUMAR, SATPAL, ANIL KUMAR, KANIKA, KANNOJ AND RAM NIWAS
Department of Agronomy, Directorate of Research, Department of G&PB (Forage Section),
Department of Agricultural Meteorology and Department of Maths & Statistics
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail: nabi.habibkhail@gmail.com)
(Received: 3 May 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025)
SUMMARY
A field experiment was conducted during summer season of 2022 and 2023 at Hisar, Haryana to evaluate the effect of irrigation intervals and moisture conservation practices in fodder sorghum. Two irrigation levels (10 and 15 days interval) were tested with ten moisture conservation practices in split plot design with three replications. Among irrigation levels, sorghum irrigated at 10 days interval recorded the maximum plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf stem ratio (L:S), leaf area index (LAI) and dry matter accumulation (DMA) at all the growth stages. Among moisture conservation practices, application of hydrogel @ 5.0 kg/ha + mulching @ 4.0 t/ha (M8) recorded the best results in terms of growth parameters but was found statistically at par with the application of gond katira @ 10.0 kg/ha + mulching @ 4.0 t/ha (M10) during both the years. So, it can be concluded that with application of hydrogel @ 5.0 kg/ha + mulching @ 4.0 t/ha along with irrigation at 10 days interval was the most suitable practice to achieve maximum growth of fodder sorghum in summer season under semi-arid conditions of Haryana.
Key words: Fodder sorghum, gond katira, hydrogel, leaf stem ratio, LAI, mulch and summer