EFFECT OF PHOSPHOROUS AND SULPHUR FERTILIZATION ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH AND SEED YIELD OF FENUGREEK (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.)

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at the research field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period from November 2016 to march 2017 to investigate the effect of four levels of phosphorous viz., 0, 20, 30, 40 kg P ha-1 and three levels of sulphur viz., 0, 10 and 20 kg S ha-1 on vegetative growth and seed yield of fenugreek (cv. BARI Methi-1). The highest plant height (26.73 cm) was found from the application of 40 kg P ha-1 and 10 kg S ha-1 at 30 days after sowing (DAS), whereas the maximum plant height (32.47 cm) was found with the dose of 40 kg P ha-1 and 20 kg S ha-1 at 60 DAS. The maximum number of primary branches plant-1 (4.60 at 30 DAS and 5.73 at 60 DAS) was obtained from the application of 40 kg P ha-1 and 20 kg S ha-1. Number of pods plant-1 (23.08), weight of straw plot-1 (172.59 g/3.6 m2) and 1000-seed weight (9.98 g) were found maximum from the combined application of 40 kg P ha-1 and 20 kg S ha-1, which was closely followed by the combination of 40 kg P ha-1 and 10 kg S ha-1. The highest weight of single pod (4.40 g), weight of seeds pod-1 (15.07 mg), weight of seeds plant-1 (4.12 g) and maximum number of seeds pod-1 (15.33) were recorded from 40 kg P ha-1 in combination with 10 kg S ha-1. The combination of 40 kg P ha-1 and 10 kg S ha-1 produced the maximum seed yield (770.0 kg ha-1) which was statistically similar with that of 30 kg P ha-1 and 10 kg S ha-1 (767.2 kg ha-1) and 40 kg P ha-1 and 20 kg S ha-1 (765.3 kg ha-1). Application of 40 kg P ha-1 in combination with 10 kg S ha-1 increased seed yield over the control (0.0 kg ha-1 P + 0.0 kg S ha-1) by 50.69%, followed by 50.51% obtained from 30 kg P ha-1 with 20 kg S ha-1. There was highly significant correlation between seed yield of fenugreek at different levels of phosphorus and sulphur. Therefore, application of P-S (40+10) kg ha-1 with a blanket dose of N-K (80+67) kg ha-1 + 5.0 tons cowdung might be considered as suitable fertilizer dose for production of fenugreek.