The Response of Micronutrients on Crop Growth Indices, Chlorophyll Content, Relative Water Content and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties

Abstract

Chickpeas are prized legume crops that are frequently eaten in developing countries. Hence, a field experiment was conducted to study the Impact of Foliar Applied Zinc, Boron and Iron on plant Growth, Chlorophyll content, Yield attributes and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties during the Rabi season of 2018-19 and 2019-20. The field experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design assigning three varieties in main plots (KGD-1168, Radhey and KWR-108) and seven micronutrients combined in subplots. The results revealed that the variety Radhey showed significantly higher in growth indices and yield viz., dry weight of plant (21.06, 21.56g at maturity), crop growth rate (0.230, 0.236 g plant-1 day-1 at 75-100DAS), relative growth rate (0.177, 0.177 g g-1 day-1 at 75-100DAS) and net assimilation rate (0.0303, 0.0335 g plant-1 day-1 at 100 to maturity), chlorophyll content, relative water content, seed yield plant-1 and seed yield (2118, 2228 kg ha-1) of chickpea during both the years, respectively. Among various micronutrients, the foliar application of Zinc @ 0.5% + Boron @ 0.2 % + Iron @ 0.1 % exerted significantly higher in growth indices and yield viz., dry weight of plant (21.26, 21.74g at maturity), crop growth rate (0.212, 0.224g plant-1 day-1 at 75-100DAS), relative growth rate (0.207, 0.195 g g-1 day-1 at 75-100DAS), net assimilation rate (0.0305, 0.0342 g plant-1 day-1 at 100 to maturity), chlorophyll content, relative water content, seed yield plant-1 and seed yield (2162, 2276 kg ha-1) of chickpea both the years 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. The interaction effect of varieties and micronutrients was found to be non-significant. On the basis of observed results, instructed to grow chickpea variety Radhey with foliar applications of Zinc @ 0.5% + Boron @ 0.2% + Iron @ 0.1% for higher growth and yield.