DALIP KUMAR, BAJRANG LAL SHARMA, DEEPIKA KALKAL, NARESH KUMAR, VIVEK KUMAR SAINI, RAHUL SAINI AND RAJ KUMAR
Department of Agronomy, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding (Forage Section)
Department of Soil Science, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
CCS Haryana Agricultural university, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : anilgangwa134@gmail.com)
(Received : 18 November 2023; Accepted : 16 December 2023)
SUMMARY
A field experiment was carried out to assess the effect of foliar application of nitrogen based formulations on quality and yield of fodder sorghum during summer season, 2022 at the Forage Section Research Farm, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with fourteen treatments and replicated thrice. Among all the treatments, at harvest, the significantly higher plant height, dry matter accumulation, LAI (leaf area index), leaf to stem ratio, green fodder yield and dry matter yield of 209.33 cm, 132.85g, 6.85, 0.38 , 44.54 t/ha and 12.82 t/ha, respectively, were recorded with foliar application of nano-urea @ 0.6% at 35 DAS (days after sowing) and 50 DAS, which was on a par with one nano-urea spray @ 0.4% at 35 DAS, two nano-urea spray @ 0.4% at 35 and 50 DAS and one nano-urea spray @ 0.6% at 35 DAS when RDF (recommended dose of fertilizer) was also applied in all these treatments. The maximum and same B:C (1.99) was fetched with the foliar application of nano-urea @ 0.4% at 35 DAS and 50 DAS or only at 35 DAS and one nano-urea spray @ 0.6% at 35 DAS when RDF was also applied in all these three treatments. Application of RDF along with foliar application of nano-urea @ 0.4% at 35-40 DAS could yield 25 per cent more green fodder than sole application of RDF (75 kg nitrogen + 30 kg P2O5 + 30 kg K2O per ha) under summer season.
Key words: Sorghum, fodder yield, foliar spray, nano-urea, net returns and benefit: cost