Influence of inorganic and organic foliar nutrition on growth and yield of irrigated blackgram (Vigna mungo. L)

Black gram yield is low due to various reasons includes physiological, biochemical as well as inherent factors associated with the crop. Insufficient partitioning of assimilates, flower dropping and poor pod setting. More over, lack of nutrients during critical stages of crop growth also resulted in poor yield. To improve the productivity of black gram, foliar spray of nutrients and growth hormones at critical stages helped nutrients and hormones to reach the site of food synthesis, leading quick accumulation in sink. Field experiments were conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, India during 2022 to 2023 to study the effect of supplemental foliar nutrition of organic and inorganic sources in irrigated blackgram using variety VBN-8. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design and replicated thrice. The treatments comprises foliar application (FA) of inorganic (urea, DAP and Pulse wonder) and organic (panchagavya, egg amino acid and fish amino acid) sources of nutrients viz., T₁-FA of 1% urea at flower initiation and 15 days later, T₂-FA of 2% Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) at flowering and 15 days later, T₃-FA of 2% egg amino acid at flowering and 15 days later, T₄-FA of 3% panchagavya at 30 and 45 DAS, T₅-FA of 5% fish amino acid at flowering and 15 days later, T₆-FA of 1% TNAU pulse wonder at flowering and 15 days later and T₇-control (No spray). Foliar application of pulse wonder resulted in higher values in plant height (41.5 to 41.8 cm), DMP (dry matter production) (3055 to 3175 kg ha^-1) and seed yield (875 to 905 kg ha^-1) than the other sources of nutrient. Among inorganic chemical supplementation, TNAU pulse wonder performed better than 2% DAP and 1% Urea application in terms of seed yield, net income and BCR where as 3% panchagavya spray performed better among the organic sources of nutrients followed by 5% FAA and 2% EAA spray.