Nitrogen and sulphur uptake by mustard as affected by foliar application of thio urea in different nutrient levels under various irrigation schedules

Introduction

Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss.] is an important rabi oilseed crop with 2 nd ranking in area and 3 rd in productivity, contributing 27.8% to its oilseed as industry despite an average yield of 12.58 q ha -1 , below the global 19.96 q ha -1 . (Indian Ecological Society, 2023) [3] . Mustard crop needs approx 200 to 400 mm of water through irrigation as well as rainfall. At critical periods, the crop is extremely vulnerable to the water stress. The most critical stages of irrigation in mustard farm are the as pre-flowering stage and also at siliquae formation stage which needs about 15% soil moisture by volume in the root zone. Irrigation at maximum branching and pod development stages has given yield gains of 24 -60%. Among these two, another i.e. pod development stage was found most critical and irrigation at this stage gives higher yields (Chouhan et al; 2002) [1]. After irrigation, fertilizers are the second most important input for crop growth and development. There are many reports that fertilizers enhances water productivity (Pandey et al., 2001) [9] but the efficacy of fertilizers depends on the availability of soil moisture. Nutrient management is crucial for optimizing growth and yield, with the nitrogen significantly enhancing plant height and the dry matter accumulation. Potassium aids in photosynthesis and stress resistance, phosphorus supports metabolic functions and flowering, while sulphur boosts the amino acid and chlorophyll synthesis. Mustard belonged to Cruciferae family which containing high amounts of glucosinolates and have a high sulfur demand due to very rich in oil content. Thiourea, a sulphahydral compound, is known to improve oilseeds productivity and its role as a drought ameliorant is well established under the sub-tropical regions. Its application in rapeseed-mustard affects oil, protein and glucosinolate concentration (Ghosh et al., 2000) [2] . Keeping in view the present study was carried out.

Materials and Methods

The field experiment was conducted at the Instructional Farm, Raja Balwant Singh College. Bichpuri, Agra, India (27° 17' 46" N, 77° 90' 33"E) during two rabi season of 2021-2022 and 2022-23. The soil texture of experimental field was sandy clay loam that having low status of organic carbon and available -N and sulphur but medium in available phosphoru and potassium.

The experiment was laid out in split plot design consisting of twelve treatments in which three irrigation schedules as main plot and four nutrient management as sub plot treatment which replicated in three times. Mustard (Var. RH-725) was sown in the 40 cm row spacing in last week of October and harvested on second week of March. Recommended doses of fertilizers were 80 kg N, 40 kg P 2 O 5 , 20 kg K 2 O and 30 kg S per ha. Full dose of Phosphorus, potassium & sulphur and half dose of nitrogen were applied at basal dose. Remaining half dose of nitrogen was top dressed after I st irrigation. Nitrogen and sulphur content in mustard seed and stover were determined as per standard methods and nutrient uptake was calculated as per conversion factor Nutrient uptake (kg/ha) = Nutrient Content (%) X Yield (kg/ha) 100

Results and Discussion

Effect of irrigation scheduling and nutrient management on seed and stover yield It is clear from Table 1 that under each irrigation schedule, application of 100% NPKS resulted higher seed yield over 50% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea and control treatments but was statistically at par with 75% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea at flowering stage. Similarly in each nutrient management practice, two irrigations at 35 and 60 DAS produced higher seed yield as compared to other irrigation schedule. This is attributed to improved nutritional environment in the rhizosphere as well as in the plant system leading to higher nutrients translocation in plant parts along with irrigation water so that availability of moisture in rhizosphere which solubilized the nutrients and ultimately the plants exploited more nutrients from soil through their root proliferation and finally the yield parameters. (Lakpale et al. 2007) [6] .

The crop sown with two irrigations at 35 and 60 DAS and 100% NPKS produced significantly maximum seed (2191.7 kg ha -1 ) and stover (5136.7 kg ha -1 ) yield over rest of the other treatment combinations except treatment combination of two irrigations at 35 and 60 DAS and 75% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea at flowering stage. The higher yield with 100% NPKS or 75% NPKS + thio urea with two irrigations. Increase in yield parameters due to increasing of NPKS may be due to adequate nutrients which are turns help in vigorous vegetative growth of plants and subsequently increase the plant height through cell elongation cell division photosynthesis and turbidity of plant cell. Similar results have also been recorded by Tripathi et al., (2011) [11] . Increase in seed and stover yield with an increase in the rate of NPKS application has also been reported by Paliwal and Singh (2014) [8] and Meena et al. (2024) [7] .

Effect of irrigation scheduling and nutrient management on total nitrogen and sulphur uptake

Nitrogen and sulphur uptake by mustard seed and stover were significantly higher with irrigation (Table -2). Crop sown with two irrigations resulted in significantly higher uptake over one irrigation and no irrigation treatments. under each irrigation schedule, application of 100% NPKS resulted higher total N and S uptake over 50% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea and control treatments but was statistically at par with 75% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea in one or two irrigation treatments. Nutrient uptake was computed by multiplying yield with nutrient content thus it is evident that both the parameters affect the uptake values which have been reflected in Irrigated plots (I 1 & I 2 ) as there was higher nutrients uptake as compared to no irrigation plots. The higher nutrient uptake with increasing levels of irrigation may be attributed to better water and nutrient availability, which gave rise to better plant growth and yield and congenial atmosphere for nutrients uptake. Similar findings have been reported in mustard by Yadav et al. (2010) [12] and Kumar et al. (2005) [5] .

Application of nutrients at higher levels (100%) significantly increased the uptake of by seed and stover over lower levels (50%). Enhanced uptake of nutrient with its application was also been reported by Katiyar et al. (2011) [4] . The crop sown with two irrigations at 35 and 60 DAS and 100% NPKS produced significantly maximum total N uptake (94.51 kg ha -1 ) and S uptake (31.12 kg ha -1 ) over rest of the other treatment combinations except treatment combination of two irrigations at 35 and 60 DAS and 75% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea at flowering stage. It is because uptake was positively correlated with seed yield. This may be attributed to proportionate increase in dry matter production and increase in total seed and stover yield with the respective treatments. The favourable effect of thio-urea on growth of plants might be due to improved photosynthetic efficiency. Application of thio-urea also creates lighter microbial population in soil which is responsible for mobilizing essential nutrients. Similar reports were found by Singh and Pal (2011) [10] .

Conclusion

From the results obtained under present study indicate that irrigated treatments show significantly higher seed and stover yield and nitrogen and sulphue uptake as compared to no irrigation treatment. Application of 100% NPKS alone or 75% NPKS with foliar spray of thio urea recorded significantly higher seed and stover yield and nitrogen and sulphue uptake as compared to control and lower NPK levels. Thus the crop sown with two irrigations at 35 and 60 DAS with either 100% NPKS or 75% NPKS + 1% foliar spray of thio urea at flowering stage noticed higher N and S uptake by mustard which produced qualitative ssed yield in alluvial soil of agra distract of uttar pradesh.

References

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