Impact of Foliar Application of Nutrients on Yield and Economics of Cluster Bean (cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.) under Dryland Condition

Field experiments were carried out at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during kharif season of 2018 to 2020 to find out the impact of foliar spray of nutrients on yield and economics of cluster bean (cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.) under dryland condition. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications comprising of nine treatments viz. RDF (N:P2O5 @ 20:40 kg/ha), RDF + water spray at flower initiation, RDF + water spray at pod formation, RDF + NPK (0:0:50) 1% spray at flower initiation, RDF + NPK (0:0:50) 1% spray at pod formation, RDF + 0.5% ZnSO4 spray at flower initiation, RDF + 0.5% ZnSO4 spray at pod formation, RDF + NPK (0:0:50) 1% + 0.5% ZnSO4 spray at flower initiation and RDF + NPK (0:0:50) 1% + 0.5% ZnSO4 spray at pod formation. The results indicated that yield attributes, viz. plant height at harvesting, number of branches/plant, number of pods/plant and test weight, were significantly influenced by different foliar nutrition treatments except water spray. Among different treatments, RDF + NPK (0:0:50) 1% + 0.5% ZnSO4 spray at flower initiation recorded highest plant height at harvesting (75.8 cm), number of branches/plant (11.4), number of pods/plant (70.4) and test weight (31.3 g). Further, the data showed that, RDF + NPK (0:0:50) 1% + 0.5% ZnSO4 spray at flower initiation increased the seed and straw yield of cluster bean by 38.8 and 47.8% compared with RDF alone (control) with higher net returns (₹ 21139/ha), benefit: cost ratio (2.08) and rainwater-use efficiency (4.52 kg/ha-mm).