1Department of Agronomy, School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences, The Neotia University, Sarisha, West Bengal, India
2Department of Agronomy and Agroforestry, MS Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India
The field experiment was carried out at Instructional Farm, The Neotia University, West Bengal to study the effect of sulphur fertilization and dates of sowing on the growth, yield attributes and yield of sunflower during two consecutive winters of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The soil of the experimental field was fine in texture and clayey in nature, having 213.6 kg/ha available N, 11.08 kg/ha available P, 234.08 kg/ha exchangeable K and 0.46 % organic carbon. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design, replicated thrice, having four levels of Sulphur fertilization viz. S0, Control, S1, 20 kg S/ha, S2, 40 kg S/ha, S3, 60 kg S/ha, respectively considered as main-plot, while, 4 levels of date of sowing, viz., D1, sowing at 1st fortnight of November, D2, 2nd fortnight of November, D3, 1st fortnight of December and D4, 2nd fortnight of December, respectively were considered as sub-plot treatment of the experiment. The variety of sunflower was Divakar. The recommended dose of fertilizer was 80 kg N: 60 kg P2O5 : 40 kg K2O ha−1. The results showed that application of 60 kg S ha−1,
Sulphur fertilization in sunflower at the rate of 60 kg S ha−1 enhanced seed and oil yield of sunflower.
Sowing of sunflower during first week of November was beneficial in the coastal saline soil of West Bengal.
Sulphur fertilization, Dates of sowing, Seed yield, Oil content
