EFFECT OF CROPS AND FOLIAR NUTRITION ON GROWTH, YIELD, QUALITY AND ECONOMICS UNDER HYDROPONICS
R. JOLAD, S. D. SIVAKUMAR AND C. BABU
Department of Agronomy,Department of Forage Crops,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641003
*(e-mail : rajeshjolad1757@gmail.com)
(Received : 3 December 2019; Accepted : 28 December 2019)
SUMMARY
A factorial experiment was conducted at New area Farm, Department of Forage crops, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during October – December 2017 to study the effect of different foliar nutrition spray on hydroponically grown fodder crops. The treatments included two factors viz. crops- fodder maize (C1), grain maize (C2), grain cowpea (C3) and horse gram (C4) and foliar nutrition- control (without any spray) (N0), 19: 19: 19 @ 1% (N1), DAP @ 0.5% + KCl @ 0.5% (N2), panchagavya @ 3% (N3), and vermiwash @ 1% (N4). From this study, it can be concluded that growing of grain maize with foliar application of 19:19:19 NPK @ 1% found to be technically viable and economically feasible option for attaining maximum green fodder yield and nutritional quality under hydroponic fodder production system.
Key words:Hydroponics, foliar spray, quality, 19:19:19 NPK, crude protein