Abstract

Experiments were conducted consecutively for three seasons (2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11) during October-January to study the effect of tillage and mulch on growth, yield and root characters of pea in Arunachal Pradesh. Two tillage methods, conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT) as main plot and four mulches viz. paddy straw mulch (PSM), maize stubble (MS), Imperata cylendrica (thatches grass; TG) each at 4.0 t/ha and no mulch (NM) as sub plot in split plot design was executed. Pooled data of three years indicated that growth characters viz., plant height, number of branches/plant and total dry weight/plant along with nodule number and nodule dry weight/plant and yield attributes viz., number of pods/plant, pod length and seeds/pod were significantly higher with CT over ZT. Among the mulches, the growth and yield characters were higher with PSM followed by MS. Similarly, green pod, seed and stover yield were 11.1, 7.8 and 10.0% higher with CT over ZT. Among the mulches, PSM recorded 36.1, 34.3, and 24.8% more green pod, seed yield and stover yield over NM respectively. Higher root length (30.9%), root dry weight (19.7%) and root volume (24.7%) was observed with CT over ZT. In contrary, root numbers was 27.0% lower with CT.

Keywords: Mulch, Pisum sativum, root characters, soil moisture, tillage, yield