Nitrogen management in baby corn (Zea mays) for higher productivity in central plain zone of Uttar Pradesh

A field experiment was conducted during winter season at Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), India on an alluvial soil to study the response of baby corn (Zea mays L.) to three levels of nitrogen (50, 100 and 150 kg N ha^-1) and four modes of its application (4 N basal + 4 N at knee high stage (KHS), S! N basal + T! N at KHS, 14 N basal + N N at KHS + N N at pre tasseling stage (PTS) and S! N basal + S! N KHS + S! N at PTS) along with one absolute control treatment. Results revealed that growth, yield attributes, baby corn yield and green fodder yield of baby corn increased significantly up to 150 kg N ha^-1. The differences between 100 and 50 kg N ha^-1 were also significant. Further, mean baby corn yield and green fodder yield were increased by 19.06 and 15.50 % higher over 100 kg N ha^-1 and 49.82 and 37.11% more over 50 kg N ha^-1, respectively. With regard to split application of nitrogen, 3 equal splits as S! at basal + S! at KHS + S! at PTS resulted in significantly higher mean plant height at harvest (140.3 cm), yield attributes viz., cob weight (54.7 g), cob length (20.4 cm), cob girth (4.8 cm) and cob diameter (1.75 cm), baby corn yield (1554 kg ha^-1) and green fodder yield (3441 kg ha^-1) than other schedules of N application. Application of N in 3 equal splits i.e. S! at basal + S! at KHS + S! at PTS produced 9.13, 12.04 and 16.93% higher baby corn yield when compared to 4 N basal + N N at KHS + N N at PTS, S! N basal + T! N at KHS, and 4 N basal + 4 N at KHS, respectively.