Pre-sowing seed treatment and foliar spray of nitrate salts on yield of summer greengram [vigna radiata (l.) wilczek] in alluvial soil of west bengal

Field experiment conducted at BCKV Farm, West Bengal with greengram during pre-kharif (February to May) in split plot design with four levels of pre-sowing seed treatment (no treatment, with 1% concentration of potassium chloride, with 0.1% concentration of ammonium molybdate and with Rhizobium inoculation) allotted on the main plots and three levels of foliar spray of nitrate salts (no spray, spray with 0.5% concentration of potassium nitrate salt and with 0.4% concentration of calcium nitrate salt) allotted on the sub-plots under each main plot revealed that application of pre-sowing seed treatments and spraying of nitrate salts significantly influenced the number of pods/plant, length of pod, number of seeds/pod, test weight and ultimately seed yield, stalk yield and harvest index of greengram. The seed yield for inoculation was 8.21 q/ha, being significantly better than other seed treatments, with an increase by 22.90% over untreated control. Maximum seed yield (8.11 q/ha) was obtained for the spray with 0.4% concentration calcium nitrate salt being significantly better over the spray with 0.5% concentration potassium nitrate salt. The increase in seed yield for the sprays of potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate salts over no spray was 15.99 and 25.93%, respectively. For maximum seed yield of 9.35 q/ha, the best combination was for the foliar spray of 0.4% concentration calcium nitrate salt with seed inoculation.