Effect of Sowing Window and Phosphorus Levels on Growth and Yield of Summer Fodder Cowpea

Background: Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] has emerged out as a potential crop for meeting the requirement of high quality fodder to fast expanding cattle population. There is a large gap between the demand and supply of green fodder during the lean period which can be narrowed down through the agronomic approaches. Among them, time of sowing and fertilizer application are considered to be the most important factors determining the production potential of the crop. Keeping this in view, the present investigation was taken up in order to find out the optimum time of sowing along with the optimum dose of phosphorus for the production of fodder cowpea. Methods: The present experiment was undertaken during summer, 2019 on sandy loam soils of dryland farm, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati. Three time of sowing viz., I fortnight (FN) of January, II FN of January and I FN of February assigned to main plots and four levels of phosphorus viz., 0, 20, 40 and 60 kg P2O5 allotted to subplots with three replications were maintained under split plot design. Result: The plant height, number of leaves plant-1, number of branches plant-1, dry-matter production and number of nodules plant-1, leaf to stem ratio and green fodder yield were higher with early sown crop i.e. I FN of January. Application of 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 resulted in significant improvement in the growth parameters, yield attributes and yield of fodder cowpea, while the lowest were recorded under control conditions (0 kg P2O5 ha-1). The interaction between time of sowing and phosphorus levels influencing the above parameters was found to be non-significant. In conclusion, the present investigation revealed that fodder cowpea gives optimum green fodder yield with high nutritional quality on sown during I FN of January with 60 kg P2O5 ha-1.