2024, Vol. 7, Special Issue 9

author(s)
HH Dikey and RS Wankhade

abstract
Soybean has been principal food crop since long time as it produces 2-3 times more high quality protein per hectare than other pulses and cholesterol free oil. It is an excellent health food as it contains 40-42% quality protein, 23% carbohydrates and 20% cholesterol free oil. It is the cheapest and main source of dietary protein of majority of vegetarian (hence it is known as poor man’s meat). Plant growth regulators are known to enhance the source-sink relationship and stimulate the translocation of photosynthates thereby helping in effective flower formation, pods and seed development and ultimately enhance the productivity of the crop. The field investigation was conducted at Regional Research Centre, Amravati under Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola during kharif 2017-18 to 2019-20. The experiment was laid out in a factorial randomized block design with fifteen treatments combinations and three replications with a view to find out the effect of the four bio-regulators (salicylic acid, ethrel, chloromequat chloride and nitrobenzene) and their stages of application on growth, yield and quality of soybean. From the pooled data of three years reveled that, application of nitrobenzene 20% @ 500 ppm found significantly more plant height (54.63 cm), number of branches plant^-1(3.53), number of pods plant ^-1(28.95), test weight (11.06 g), seed yield (1981 kg ha^-1), straw yield (2562 kg ha^-1), protein content (39.45%), oil content (18.65%), GMR (Rs. 65460 ha^-1), NMR (Rs. 34705 ha^-1) and B:C ratio (2.12) and it was at par with chloromequat chloride @1000 ppm in all characters, whereas, application of growth regulators at flower initiation stage recorded numerically more plant height (53.37 cm), number of branches plant^-1 (3.26), number of pods plant ^-1 (28.52), test weight (10.79 g), seed yield (1955 kg ha^-1), straw yield (2498 kg ha^-1), protein content (39.47%), oil content (18.62%), higher GMR (Rs. 65585 ha^-1), NMR (Rs. 34102 ha^-1) and B:C ratio (2.10). Interaction effect on growth, yield, yield attributes, quality and economics parameters showed non-significant effect.