EFFECTS OF BORON FERTILIZER AND IRRIGATION FREQUENCY ON GROWTH, YIELD AND NUTRIENT CONTENT OF MUSTARD (BARI sarisha-14)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the experimental field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka to determine the effect of boron fertilizer and irrigation frequency on growth, yield and nutrient content of mustard (BARI sarisha-14) during the period from November 2019 to February 2020. The experiment consisted of four levels of boron viz. control - 0 kg B ha -1 (B 0 ), 0.5 kg B ha ii -1 (B 1 ), 1.0 kg B ha -1 (B ) and 1.5 kg B ha -1 (B 3 ) and 3 levels of irrigation viz. control - no irrigation (I ), one irrigation at 25 DAS (I 1 ) and two irrigations at 25 and 50 DAS (I 2 0 ). The experiment was laid out in the two factors Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Considering the application of boron, B 2 (1.0 kg B ha -1 ) showed best performance in terms of yield and yield contributing parameters and showed highest number of siliqua plant -1 (78.78), length of siliqua (4.49 cm), number of seeds siliqua (35.89), 1000 seed weight (4.51 g), seed yield (1437.00 kg ha -1 ) and harvest index (41.80%) whereas control treatment B 0 (0 kg B ha -1 2 -1 ) gave the lowest performance. Treatment B

(1.5 kg B ha -1 ) showed highest N, P, K, B content in straw and B content in seed followed by B 2 (1.0 kg B ha -1 ). Considering irrigation treatments, I (Two irrigations at 25 and 50 DAS) gave best results on growth, yield and yield contributing parameters. The highest number of siliqua plant -1 2 (77.42), length of siliqua (4.47 cm), number of seeds siliqua -1 (36.00), 1000 seed weight (4.41 g), seed yield (1422.00 kg ha -1 ), stover yield (1989.00 kg ha -1 ) and harvest index (41.44%) were recorded from I

whereas control treatment I 0 gave the lowest results. Treatment I also showed highest N, P, K, B content in straw and B content in seed. Regarding combined effect, B 2 I 2 showed highest number of siliqua plant -1 (85.67), length of siliqua (4.77 cm), number of seeds siliqua -1 (39.33), 1000 seed weight (5.12 g), seed yield (1780.00 kg ha -1 ), stover yield (2107.00 kg ha -1 ) and harvest index (45.78%) while the highest amount of N, P, K, B content in straw and B content in seed were found from B treatment followed by B 2 I . Hence, the results summarized that different boron and/or irrigation levels had significant and positive effect on growth, yield contributing parameters, yield and nutrient uptake of mustard and these can be considered as essential practices for higher mustard production.