Effects of soil suction based irrigation scheduling and integrated nutrient management on crop yield and water use of broccoli

For efficient utilization of harvested rain water, there is a need to generate critical information on developing irrigation scheduling based on soil water retention and transmission characteristics with respect to atmospheric demand not only for obtaining profitable marketable yields but also higher nutrient and Water Use Efficiency (WUE). The present study was conducted at Experimental Farm of CSK HPKV, Palampur, during 2009–10 and 2010–11 with the objective of evaluating the effect of soil suction based irrigation scheduling, vermicompost and NPK levels on growth, productivity and WUE of broccoli. The treatments comprised of a) Irrigation management viz., Ij (I₂₀₍₃₎)-Irrigation of 3 cm at 20 cm mercury rise, I₂(I₂₀₍₆₎) - Irrigation of 6 cm at 20 cm mercury rise and I₃ (I₃₆₍₆₎)-Irrigation of 6 cm at 36 cm mercury rise, b) Nutrient management viz., M;-Vermicompost (VC)₂₅ + 100% Recommended Dose of Fertilizers (RDF), M₂-VC₅ + 50% RDF and M₃-VC₇.₅ and c) Control-I_Rcc + Farm Yard Manure (FYM)₂₀ + 100% RDF. The results indicated that I₂ treatment had higher profile water depletion in comparison to I₁₅1₃ and I_Rcc in both the years. Because of favorable soil water status treatment I; led to better root and shoots growth, marketable curd yield (by 13.3 and 38.0% during 2009–10 and 2010–11) and WUE in comparison to I₃. Likewise, M, treatment had higher root and shoot growth, marketable curd yield (almost double during both years) and WUE in comparison to M₃. The highest marketable curd yield, WUE, economic returns was obtained under IjMj treatment. From the above study, it is concluded that the application of 3 cm irrigation at 20 cm mercury rise and VC @ 2.51 ha"¹ + 100% NPK should be followed for obtaining higher returns and WUE.