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Productivity of no-till maize (Zea mays L.) as influenced by leguminous cover crops and nitrogen levels

KrishiKosh

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Title Productivity of no-till maize (Zea mays L.) as influenced by leguminous cover crops and nitrogen levels
 
Creator Salaria, Amit
 
Contributor Kang, J.S.
 
Subject chopping, cover crops, cowpea, dhaincha, maize, no-till, sunnhemp, yield
 
Description Two field experiments regarding the study entitled, “Productivity of no-till maize (Zea mays L.) as influenced by leguminous cover crops and nitrogen levels” were conducted at Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, PAU, Ludhiana during kharif 2013 and 2014. Soil of experimental field was slightly alkaline in reaction, low in organic carbon and available N, high in available P and medium in available K. Experiment I comprised of 9 treatment combinations of 3 leguminous cover crops (sunnhemp, cowpea and dhaincha) and 3 chopping time (25, 35 and 45 DAS) with an additional control treatment (without cover crop). These total 10 treatments were laid out in randomized block design with 4 replications. Experiment II was laid out in split plot design with 3 replications. The main plot comprised of 4 cover crops treatments (sunnhemp, cowpea, dhaincha and control i.e no cover crop) to be chopped at 45 DAS and sub plots consisted of 4 N levels for maize i.e 0 (RN0), 50 (RN50), 75 (RN75) and 100 (RN100) per cent of recommended dose (125 kg N ha-1). The sowing of no-till maize was done in last week of June, immediately after chopping of cover crops. In both the experiments, results of cover crops preceding the maize indicated that the dry matter and N accumulation were significantly higher in sunnhemp, and improved with increase in chopping time. In experiment I, sunnhemp recorded significant increase in plant height, LAI, DMA, cob length, grain weight per cob, 1000-grain weight and N uptake of maize which resulted in 8.7, 11.2 and 22.7% higher average maize grain yield over cowpea, dhaincha and control, respectively. Chopping of cover crops at 45 DAS increased the average maize grain yield by 12.9 and 24.6% over chopping at 35 and 25 DAS, respectively. Over all, combinations of cover crops and chopping time increased the average maize grain yield by 15.3% over the control. Significant interaction between cover crops and chopping time indicated that at chopping time of 35 DAS, sunnhemp recorded higher maize yield over cowpea and dhaincha, and at par with all cover crops chopped at 45 DAS. The practice of growing cover crops and increment in chopping time helped in building of available N, P and K in soil at harvest and also improved SOC, bulk density, infiltration rate and WUE. In experiment II, the sunnhemp resulted in 10.5, 12.4 and 31.1% higher average maize grain yield over cowpea, dhaincha and control, respectively. Successive increment in N increased the growth, yield attributes and yield of maize but the response was significant up to RN75. Application of 100 % of the recommended nitrogen resulted in 3.2, 17.0 and 46.7% increase in average maize grain yield as compared to RN75, RN50 and RN0, respectively. The RN100 and RN75 recorded significantly higher soil available N over RN0 but result was non-significant for available P and K. In both the experiments, the days to 50% tasseling and silking of maize were significantly advanced due to cover crops, increase in chopping time and with N up to RN75, though, the days were minimum under sunnhemp. Protein content of grain improved under cover crops, the results being significant at 45 days chopping time in experiment I while in experiment II, RN100 and RN75 showed noteworthy gain over the RN0. In general, the soil temperature at 5 cm depth was reduced under cover crops, with increment in chopping time and N doses during the crop season and the reduction in temperature was more evident under sunnhemp at 1430 hrs.
 
Date 2016-08-19T14:31:16Z
2016-08-19T14:31:16Z
2016
 
Type Thesis
 
Identifier http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/73045
 
Language en
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana