Growth and productivity of rainfed khara lana (Haloxylon recurvum) under hot arid conditions of north-western Rajasthan

Abstract

A field experiment was initiated in Feburary 2004 to investigate the effect of plant population density and farm yard manure application on growth and productivity of rainfed Haloxylon recurvum (Moq,) Bunge ex. Boiss. at CAZRI, RRS, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. The treatments comprised four plant population densities viz.1600, 2500, 5000 and 6666.6 plants/ha and three levels of FYM viz. control, 2.5 and 5.0 t /ha. Plant population densities had significant influence on growth attributes e.g. plant height, canopy diameter and number of branches per plant. Maximum growth was recorded at lowest plant population density and decreased with increasing density. Application of FYM brought significant improvement in growth attributes up to 12 months after planting (MAP). The dry matter productivity at 18 MAP was strongly influenced by plant population density (R2=0.99). The dry matter productivity on area basis increased with increasing population density whereas dry matter yield per plant decreased with increasing plant population density. Maximum dry matter productivity (4.2 t/ha) was registered with 6666.7 plants/ha which was 16.7, 50.0, and 61.5 % higher over 5000, 2500, and 1600 plants/ha, respectively. FYM application did not show any significant improvement in dry matter productivity both in term of area and per plant basis. Among the growth attributes, canopy diameter has maximum co-relation (R2 = 0.91) with dry matter yield followed by number of branches (R2 = 0.89) and plant height (R2 = 0.47).