Vol. 8, Issue 12, Part F (2024)

A field experiment was carried out in a split-plot design with three replications during the winter (rabi) season of 2022-23 at PGI Farm, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra, India. In this experiment, “Influence of plant growth regulators and nutrients on growth and productivity in chickpea under fluctuating environments” was studied. The chickpea variety Phule Vikram was used as a test crop. The experiment consisted of two factors, i.e., sowing dates and treatments. The main factor included three sowing dates: second week of November, first week of December and fourth week of December. The sub-factor included eight treatments: Control, foliar applications of Nanourea @ 0.2% at flowering and pod filling stages, foliar applications of Potassium Nitrate @ 2% at flowering and pod filling stages, foliar applications of Boron @ 0.1% at flowering and pod filling stages, foliar applications of Kinetin @ 10 ppm at flowering and pod filling stages, foliar applications of CCC (Chlormequate chloride 50%) @ 30 ppm at flowering and pod filling stages, foliar applications of Ethrel (2-Chloroethyl phosphonic acid 39%) @ 20 ppm at flowering and pod filling stages and foliar applications of NAA (α-Naphthyl Acetic Acid) @ 10 ppm at flowering and pod filling stages. All observations were recorded at different growth stages of the crop and analysis was done as per the standard procedure. The experiment revealed that the second week of November was significantly superior for increasing plant height (66.45 cm), number of secondary branches (13.99), leaf area (10.21 cm²), pods per plant (95.64), seeds per pod (1.62), 100-seed weight (21.05 g), biological yield (6171.81 kg ha^-1) and seed yield per hectare (2748.13 kg ha^-1) of chickpea compared to the first and fourth weeks of December. The experiment also revealed that the foliar application of Potassium Nitrate @ 2% at flowering and pod filling stages significantly influenced leaf area (10.35 cm²), number of pods per plant (85.81), number of seeds per plant (1.67), 100-seed weight (21.30 g) and seed yield per hectare (2833.67 kg/ha). The interaction between sowing date (second week of November) and treatment (foliar application of Potassium Nitrate @ 2% at flowering and pod filling stages) was found to be significantly superior in increasing the number of pods per plant (106.58) and seed yield per hectare (3222.60 kg/ha). The correlation data revealed that the correlation coefficient between morphological and yield-related characteristics with economic yield and biological yield showed a significantly positive correlation (at the 1% level), indicating a strong positive correlation with yield.