Effect of irrigation scheduling at critical growth stages and fertility levels on growth, yield and quality of summer sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

摘要

A field experiment was conducted with sesame during summer season of 2007 and 2008 on clayey soil of Cotton Research Centre, Khapat farm, Junagadh Agricultural University, Porbandar, Gujarat to find out the combined effect of irrigation at critical growth stages and fertility levels on growth, yield attributes, yields and quality of sesame. The treatments consisted 24 possible combinations of four levels of irrigation in main plot and six levels of fertility in sub-plot. The results revealed that irrigating the crop at branching, flowering, capsule and seed development stages with the application of 75:50:50 kg NP205K20/ha were found significant for number of effective branches/plant, length of capsule, number of capsules/plant, number of seed/capsule, seed yield/plant, seed yield and stover yields of sesame, harvest index, 1000-seed weight, protein and oil content in seed, oil yield and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium uptake. Whereas water use efficiency was maximum when the crop was irrigatedat flowering and capsule development stages only.