INFLUENCE OF APPLICATION METHOD OF NITROGEN ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF MUSTARD

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted at the agronomy field of Sher-e-Bangla agricultural university, Dhaka during the rabi season (November- February) 2009-2010 to study the influence of application method of nitrogen (N) on the growth and yield of mustard. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Two forms of nitrogen fertilizer i.e. prilled urea (PU) and urea super granule (USG) were used in this experiment with different application methods. The treatments were i.e. T1= Prilled Urea (PU) broadcasted (conventional method), T2= PU given in the side furrows, T3= PU given between two rows, T4=PU and seed given in the same furrows, T5= Urea Super Granular (USG) placed at 5 cm depth as basal, T6= USG placed at 5 cm depth at 10 days after sowing (DAS), T7= USG placed at 5 cm depth at 20 DAS, T8= USG placed at 5 cm depth at 30 DAS, T9= USG placed at 10 cm depth as basal, T10= USG placed at 10 cm depth at 10 DAS, T11= USG placed at 10 cm depth at 20 DAS, T12= USG placed at 10 cm depth at 30 DAS, T13= USG placed at 15 cm depth as basal, T14= USG placed at 15 cm depth at 10 DAS, T15= USG placed at 15 cm depth at 20 DAS and T16= USG placed at 15 cm depth at 30 DAS. Results showed that USG placed in 5 cm depth at 20 DAS gave the highest seed yield (3.59 t ha-1) along with all the higher yield components i.e. siliquae plant-1 (58.60), seeds siliqua-1 (32.00), 1000 seed weight (3.56 g) which reflected in higher value of biological yield (6.78 t ha-1) and harvest index (52.62%). On the other hand, PU (conventional method) gave seed yield (2.58 t ha-1) attributed to lower value of yield components i.e. siliquae plant-1 (44.15), seeds siliqua-1 (31.66), 1000 seed weight (3.30 g) with minimum biological yield (6.65t ha-1) and harvest index (37.03). In contrast, the highest stover yield (4.07 t ha-1) was found in conventional (broadcasting) use of PU. The use of USG out yielded PU by 39.14% when this method required about 52.38% less urea than the amount of PU. Therefore, use of USG had two fold advantages over conventional use of PU.