Abstract

                                Field study was conductedunder sodic soil conditions with two crop varieties of greengram VBN (Gg) 2 andblackgram VBN (Bg) 6 with ten treatment combinations were employed by seed treated with cowpea sprout extract (2%), GA3 50 ppm and ammonium molybdate 0.05 % followed by foliar spray with ZnSO4 (0.5%), panchagavya(1%) and KCl(1%) along with control to improve the establishment under sodicity stress. The foliar spray was imposed on 30th and 45th day after sowing. Among the treatment combinations, seed treatment with cowpea sprout extract (2%)+ foliar spray of panchagavya (1%) treatment recorded higher grain yield (785.3 Kg/ha) and harvest Index (29.6%) under sodicity compared with control. In blackgram also same treatmentrecorded higher grain yield and harvest index but the crop establishment and yield was lesser than greengram. From this study, it was concluded that,seed treatment with cowpea sprout extract (2%) + foliar spray of panchagavya (1%) was more effective to increase theseedling establishment, physiological traits and yield under sodic soil.

Key words : SPAD, Salt stress,Cowpea sprout extract, Harvest index. .