Effect of fertility levels and foliar nutrition in fieldpea (Pisum sativum) under south - eastern Rajasthan

An experiment was conducted during the winter (rabi) season of 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 at the Agriculture University, Kota, Rajasthan, to evaluate the effect of fertility levels and foliar nutrition on fieldpea (Pisum sativum L.). The experiment consisted of 3 recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) levels (75%, 100% and 125%) and 5 foliar sprays [water spray, neem-coated urea 2%, NPK (19 : 19 : 19) 0.5%, NPK (17 : 44 : 0) 0.5% and NPK (0 : 0 : 50) 0.5%] at pre-flowering and pod-initiation stages. Result revealed, that the maximum and significantly higher plant height (168.21 cm), branches/plant (3.12), nodule count (23.75), nodule dry weight (35.87 g/plant), pods/plant (61.90), seeds/pod (3.78), grain yield (2350 kg/ha), net returns (`52,889/ha) and benefit : cost ratio (3.02) were recorded with application of 125% RDF (25 kg N + 50 kg P + 25 kg K + 25 kg S + 6.25 kg Zn/ha) with 7.32, 10.64, 13.54, 11.40, 15.81, 12,17, 26.82, 32.18 and 16.60% increase over 75% RDF. Application of 125% RDF recorded the maximum nutrient content (N : P : K : S 3.30 : 0.54 : 1.18 : 0.40% in seed and 1.69 : 0.48 : 1.51 : 0.31% in straw) and uptake (N : P : K : S 77.57 : 12.59 : 27.68 : 9.42 kg/ha in seed and 58.14 : 16.35 : 51.99 : 10.67 kg/ha in straw) over the other treatments. Among foliar applications, NPK (19 : 19 : 19) @ 0.5% at pre-flowering and pod- initiation stage resulted in the maximum and significantly higher plant height (167.76 cm), branches/plant (3.14), nodule count (23.77), nodule dry weight (36.36 g/plant), pods/plant (63.43), seeds/pod (3.89), grain yield (2,250 kg/ha), net returns (`50,835/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (3.06) over rest of treatments with 9.69, 12.95, 8.69, 10.06, 23.38, 18.24, 12.84, 17.19 and 15.47% increase over the control; however, it recorded at par results with NPK (17 : 44 : 0) @ 0.5% at pre-flowering and pod-initiation stage. Similarly, higher NKS uptake in seed and straw was observed under foliar application of NPK (19 : 19 : 19) @ 0.5% and P uptake under NPK (17 : 44 : 0) @ 0.5% than the other treatments.