Growth and yield of summer groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) as influenced by foliar application of water soluble fertilizer

The field experiment was undertaken at the District Seed Farm, Kalyani at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal during summer season of 2012 and 2013 to study the growth and yield of summer groundnut as influenced by application of water soluble foliar grade fertilizer. Application of liquid grade fertilizerat early growth stage up to 45 DAE did not influence the plant height and dry matter production significantly, but towards maturity varied significantly (P ? 0.05). Crop growth rate was faster at early part of the crop age and gradually slows at later part towards maturity. Foliar application of water soluble fertilizer along with RDF 85% had the significant (P ? 0.05) influence to increase the number of pods per plant, but shelling percentage and hundred kernel weight did not vary significantly. Liquid grade fertilizer either starter dose or booster dose or in both had the positive response to increased the groundnut pod yield up to 4-6 % over RDF only. The crop was equally responsive in increasing the pod yield, when RDF was reduced by 15% along with foliar application of liquid grade fertilizer. The foliar application of water soluble fertilizer was not the substitute to soil applied inorganic fertilizer. Instead, foliar supplementation of nutrients showed positive response to increase the pod yield, in addition to the fertilizers added to soil. Gross return decreased with reduction in amount of RDF applied for the crop, but gross return increased, when water soluble foliar grade inorganic fertilizer was supplemented with RDF. The maximum gross return of `150399 was obtained. The results obtained from correlation analysis carried out to examine the linear relationship between pod yields with different plant characters. Data obtained in case of dry matter of the plant was 0.995 and 0.997 in the respective years at 1% level of significance. Thus, it was concluded that dry matter content of plant is solely responsible over the yield increase in groundnut and foliar application of inorganic fertilizers in addition to that in soil has helped in better adsorption of nutrients in adequate amount by the crop