Response of black gram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] to spacing and fertilizer doses under rainfed conditions

A field experiment was conducted during the kharif season of 2012 to study the response of black gram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] to different spacing and fertilizer doses under rainfed conditions. Maintaining a wider spacing of 30×10 cm (S₂) was found to increase uptake of nutrients P and K by the crop resulting in significantly higher number of leaves, branches and pods per plant respectively, thereby registering the highest grain and stover yields of 730 kg/ha and 1382 kg/ha respectively. Among the fertilizer dose, F₂ + FYM@ 5 t/ha) was found to increase the availability of NPK by the (N¹⁰P⁴⁰K²⁰ crop resulting in significantly superior growth attributes viz., plant height, number of leaves and branches/plant and leaf area index (LAI) ultimately recording maximum number of pods/plant, test weight and grain yield of 725 kg/ha. Whereas, the fertilizer dose F₃ (N²⁰P⁵⁰K³⁰) was found to record the highest stover yield of 1362 kg/ha.