Effect of irrigation scheduling and NK fertigation on productivity of garden peas (Pisum sativum var. hortense L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted for three consecutive rabi seasons (2011-12 to 2013-14) to evaluate the effect of irrigation depth (0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 CPE) and NK fertigation (50 and 100% of adjusted recommended dose) along with a control (basal application of soil test based adjusted recommended NPK fertilizer and surface irrigation of 5 cm) on the productivity of garden pea at Palampur. Result revealed that irrigation and fertigation with micro-sprinkler led to 60.9% less use of water and 10.0% higher green pod yield. Consequently, water use efficiency was increased by 3.12 times over the recommended practices. Every fifth day irrigation with 80% CPE (CPE 0.8) resulted in significantly higher green pod yield than every fifth day irrigation with either 60% CPE (13.74%) or 40% CPE (19.96%). Irrigation with minimum depth of water (0.4 CPE) resulted in maximum water use efficiency of 6.51 kg green pods m-3 of irrigation water used for crop production. Fertigation of sprinkler irrigated crop either with 50 or 100% of recommended soil-test based NK had no effect on green pod yield, gross return and water use efficiency.