Standardization of Mother Crop Nutrition for Enhancing Seed Yield and Quality in Sunn Hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Madurai, Tamil Nadu to study the effect of basal and foliar nutrition sprays on the seed yield and quality of sunn hemp. The experimental results showed substantial differences across all growth, physiological and yield parameters. Statistically, the maximum crop growth rate, relative growth rate, dry matter production, and chlorophyll content were noted in plants foliar sprayed with ZnSO4 (0.5%) + Boricacid (0.3%) + NAA (40 ppm). This treatment significantly advanced flowering, and enhanced pod number per plant(87.04), pod length (3.0 cm) and 100-seed weight (2.65 g), seed yield per plant (16.41g) and seed yield per hectare (581.00 kg ha-1). The same treatment also greatly improved seed quality attributes viz., germination percentage (70 %), root length (14.50 cm), shoot length (20.10 cm), seedling dry matter (0.16 g 10 seedlings-1) and vigour index (2422). Furthermore, seeds from this treatment exhibited enhanced biochemical parameters, including higher protein (18.19%), total soluble sugar (60.6 μg g-1), and amino acid contents (19.70 μg g-1).