Yield and economics of forage sorghum as affected by foliar application of nutrients under summer season

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted to assess the yield and economics of forage sorghum varieties as influ enced by the foliar application of nutrients at Agronomy Research Farm Area, CCS HAU, Hisar during the summer season of 2020. The experiment was laid out in FRBD with three replications. The experiment con sists of fourteen treatment combination viz. two forage sorghum varieties (HJ 541 and HJ 513) and seven foliar sprays, S1- No spray (control) S2- water spray at 45-50 DAS, S3- water spray at 25-30 DAS and 45-50 DAS,  S4- urea spray @ 2% at 45-50 DAS, S5- urea spray @2% at 25-30 DAS & 45-50 DAS, S6- NPK spray (18 18-18) @ 2% at 45-50 DAS, S7- NPK spray (18-18-18) @ 2% at 25-30 DAS & 45-50 DAS. Among the forage sorghum varieties, HJ 541 recorded the highest dry matter accumulation per plant (DMA), green fodder yield (GFY), dry fodder yield (DFY), Net returns and B:C of 113.52, 407.52 q ha-1, 99.61 q ha-1, 25273 Rs.ha-1 and 1.70, respectively. Among the foliar nutrition treatments, significantly highest dry matter accumulation per plant (DMA), green fodder yield (GFY) and dry fodder yield (DFY) of 123.67, 433.33 q ha-1, 111.51 q/ha, respectively were recorded with NPK spray (18-18-18) @ 2% at 25-30 DAS and 45-50 DAS. However, the highest net returns (27211 Rs. ha-1) and B:C (1.77) were fetched with the urea spray @ 2% at 25-30 DAS & 45 50 DAS.