Sulphur management in urdbean (Vigna Mungo)-indian mustard (Brassica juncea) cropping system in vertisols.

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during two consecutive seasons of kharif and rabi (2005-06 & 2006-07) at Agricultural Research Station, Ummedganj, Kota to evaluate the optimum dose of sulphur for increasing the productivity and profitability of urdbean and mustard under urdbean-mustard cropping sequence. The experiment was comprised of 3 levels of sulphur (0, 20 and 40 kg/ha) to each urdbean and mustard and consisted of 9 treatment combinations (U0-M0, U0- M20, U0-M40, U20-M0, U20-M20, U20-M40, U40-M0, U40-M20 and U40-M40 kg/ha) were tested in randomized block design with four replications. Sulphur fertilization to urdbean 40 kg/ha significantly increased plant height/plant, branches/plant, nodules/plant, nodule dry weight, number of pods/plant, seeds/pod and test weight, seed yield, straw yield, net return and B: C ratio over no sulphur application while it remained statistically on par with 20 kg S/ha. The respective increase was in the magnitude of 7.7, 33.1, 39.5, 23.6, 35.6, 33.9, 8.4, 13.6, 16.2, 55.0 and 9.6 % over no sulphur. Maximum and significantly higher plant height, primary and secondary branches/plant, siliquae/plant, length of siliqua, seeds/siliqua, test weight, seed, stover yield, net return and B: C ratio were recorded in mustard with application of U40-M40 kg S/ha remained on par with U20-M40 and U40-M20 kg/ha over no sulphur, U0-M20, U0-M40, U20-M20 and U40-M20. Treatment U20-M40 kg S/ha recorded significantly higher urdbean equivalent yield to the tune of 1107 kg/ha, net return 16267/ha, total S uptake 14.21 kg/ha and higher buildup of S 7.49 kg/ha over U0-M0 (no sulphur)