GROWTH AND YIELD OF BLACKGRAM AS AFFECTED BY LEAF CLIPPING

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University farm, Dhaka to investigate the effect of variety and leaf clipping on the growth and yield of blackgram during March to June-2019. The experiment was consisted of two factors. Factor A: Blackgram variety (3); V 1 : BARI Mash-1, V 2 : BARI Mash-2 and V 3 : BARI Mash-3, and Factor B: Leaf clipping (4); C 0 : No leaf clipping (control), C 1 : Clipping of 1st basal leaf, C 2 : Clipping of 2nd basal leaves and C 3 : Clipping of total apical leaves having no inflorescence. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. Growth, yield and yield contributing characteristics like plant height, branches plant 1 -1 , above ground dry weight plant -1 , pod length, pods plant , thousand seed weight, seed yield, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index were compared under different treatments. Results indicated that variety and leaf clipping had significant effect on most of the growth and yield contributing characteristics of blackgram. In case of variety maximum value of the yield and yield contributing characteristics such as pod -1 length (8.99 cm), pods plant -1 (14.00), number of seeds pod -1 (9.78), 1000 seeds weight (48.58 g), and seed yield (1381.70 kg ha ), were observed in V 3 (BARI Mash-3)

treatment. In case of leaf clipping maximum pod length (8.44 cm), pods plant -1 (15.18), seeds pod (9.32), 1000 seeds weight (48.33 g), seed yield (1306.7 kg ha -1 ), was observed in C 1 (Clipping of 1st basal leaf)

treatment. In case of combined effect, V 3 C 1 (BARI Mash-3 and clipping of 1st basal leaf of blackgram) treatment was found superior in producing maximum pod length (9.32 cm), number of pods plant -1 (16.87), number of seeds pod -1 (10.80), 1000 seeds weight (51.67 g), and seed yield (1456.70 kg ha -1 ). The corresponding lowest values were obtained in V 1 C 3 (BARI Mash-1 along with clipping of total apical leaves having no inflorescence) treatment combination. So, BARI Mash-3 along with clipping of 1st basal leaf may improve growth & yield of blackgram.