Growth and productivity of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under varying levels and sources of sulphur in semi-arid conditions of Rajasthan

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy research farm, S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner during kharif, 2015 in order to evaluate the performance of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under varying levels of sulphur and its sources. Results of experiment revealed that CGR of crop during 0 - 35 DAS registered significant increase upto application of sulphur at 45 kg/ha. However, at later stages of growth the significant increase was noted upto 60 kg S/ha only. Application of sulphur at 60 kg/ha recorded a significant increase of 6.1 per cent in RGR over 15 kg/ha during 70 DAS – at harvest stage. Likewise, application of 60 kg S/ha also significantly enhanced the number of total and effective nodules as well as fresh and dry weight of nodules/plant and produced significantly higher pod and biological yields of groundnut (1832 and 5361 kg/ha) than 45, 30 and 15 kg/ha. Application of sulphur through gypsum recorded significant increase in plant height and dry matter accumulation/m row length at all the stages of crop over SSP and elemental sulphur treatments. The maximum CGR at all the stages of crop was recorded when sulphur was applied through gypsum. Sulphur application through SSP registered 13.9, 9.8 and 21.4 per cent increase in CGR over elemental sulphur at these stages, respectively. On the other hand, SSP and gypsum increased the RGR by 7.2 and 6.3 per cent, respectively over elemental sulphur. Gypsum as a sources of sulphur fertilization recorded the highest number of 62.30 total and 55.00 effective nodules/plant and as well as fresh and dry weight of nodules (229.87 and 102.00 mg/plant) thereby increasing to the extent of 22.1, 27.6, 23.9 and 18.9 per cent over elemental sulphur. Sulphur application through gypsum produced 13.1 and 10.2 per cent higher pod and biological yield of groundnut over elemental sulphur.