Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2010 at Agronomy farm, S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner, Jaipur to study the influence of phosphorus levels and zinc application on growth and yield of mothbean [Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal]. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. The treatments consisting of four levels of phosphorus (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg P2 O5 ha-1) and four treatments of zinc (control, soil application @ 5 kg Zn ha-1, soil application + one foliar spray @ 0.5% Zn at 25 DAS and soil application + two foliar spray @ 0.5% Zn at 25 and 40 DAS) making 16 treatment combinations. The results revealed that application of phosphorus upto 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 significantly increased plant height, branches plant-1, dry matter accumulation plant-1 at 40 DAS and at harvest, total and effective root nodules plant-1, fresh and dry weight of root nodules plant-1, number of pods plant-1, grains pod-1, grain yield and stalk yield of mothbean over the preceding levels. Further application of 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 could not bring significant improvement over 40 kg P2O5 ha-1. Increase in test weight was observed upto 20 kg P2O5 ha-1 only.

Keywords: Loamy sand soil, phosphorus, soil application of zinc, foliar spray of zinc, growth, yield, mothbean.