Response of Wider Spaced Drip Irrigated Rabi Castor to Intra-Row Spacing under Varying N Levels

An experiment was conducted for two consecutive rabi seasons of 2011–12 and 2012–13 on clayey soil of the Soil and Water Management Research Farm, Navsari agricultural University, Navsari to study the response of wider spaced drip irrigatedrabi castor to intra-row spacing under varying N levels. In all, ten treatment combinations comprising of all the possible combinations of three intra-row spacings (60, 90 and 120 cm)and three N levels (80, 120 and 160 kg N ha⁻¹) having common inter-row spacing of 2.4 m, along with on pair row control (0.6 m X 0.6 m X 1.2 m paired row + RDF) outside the experimental plot. Intra-row spacing of 120 cm produced significantly higher number of branches, leaves, spikes and seed yield per plant. While, intra-row spacing of 60 cm remained superior withrespect of plant height, seed, stalk, oil yield ha⁻¹ and nutrient uptake. Among N levels, application of 160 kg N ha⁻¹ recorded significantly higher plant height, number of branches, leaves, spikes, seed yield per plant and also resulted in higher seed, stalk and oil yield.