Introduction

Cress (Lepidiumsativum L.) is a fast growing annual herb belonging to the brassicaceae family that is native to Ethiopia and introduced to Europe, Asia and USA. In Gujarat,popularly known as Asaliyo. It has been used widely in different parts of the world for its wide therapeutic application. Plant and seeds are considered one of the popular medicinal herbs used world wide as a good mediator for bone fracture healing in the human skeleton and also used as a remedy for dysentery, diarrhea and skin disease caused by impurity of blood. The major constraint limiting production of crop is poor fertility status of soil. An optimum supply of nitrogen is important for vigorous growth and development of plants. The importance of phosphorus application to cruciferous oil seed crops has been recognized since long. It promotes plant growth, enhance the yield and also help in root development. Oil seed crop, in general, respond more to sulphur application which is expressed on the yield and quality produce. Studies on direct effect of N, P and S fertilization on cress crops have been found to be helpful in economizing fertilizer use without any adverse effect on soil fertility and crop yield. Very little work has been carried out to study the requirement of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur by the cress crop in middle Gujarat condition. The present investigation was therefore, planned and conducted.

Marerials and Methods

An experiment was conducted at Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Research Centre, Anand Agricultural University, Anand (Gujarat) during rabi season of the year 2014-15. The soil of experimental field was loamy sand in texture, having low in organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur and medium in potash. The treatments comprising four levels of nitrogen (60, 80, 100 and 120 kg/ha), three levels of phosphorus (0, 40 and 80 kg/ha) and two levels of sulphur (0, 20 kg/ha). The experiment was laid out in randomize block design (Factorial) with three replications. Calculated quantity of N was applied through urea in two splits. Entire quantity of P and S was applied as a basal at sowing time through diammonium phosphate and gypsum respectively.  Cress was sown on November 6^th, 2014 with seed rate of 3 kg/ha.

Result and Discussion

Effect of Nitrogen

Data presented in Table-1 indicated that application of 120 kg N/ha recorded significantly higher plant height (120.84 cm) and number of branches/plant (19.20). Application of 100 kg N/ha recorded significantly higher seed yield (1653 kg/ha) of cress but it was statistically at par with application of 80 kg N/ha and 100 kg N/ha. Significantly higher stover yield (kg/ha) of cress was recorded under application of 120 kg N/ha, which was also statistically at par with application of 100 kg N/ha. Possible reason might be that the application of N increases size of cells, meristemic activities and formation and function of protoplasm, which consequently increase the crop growth. The increased crop growth improves the yield components and finally the seed yield (Premi and Kumar, 2004).These results are substantiated with Choudharyet al. (2010) and Kumari and Patel (2013) in cresscrop.

Effect of Phosphorus

Growth and Yield attributes and yield of cress were significantly increased with P application. Application of 80 kg P₂O₅/ha recorded significantly higher plant height (118.48), branches/plant (18.97), siliquae/plant (1157), seed yield (1647 kg/ha) and stover yield (5649 kg/ha) of cress. Increase in these parameters due to P could be ascribed to the overall improvement in plant growth, vigour and production of sufficient photosynthetes. The results corroborate the work of Punia et al. (1993) in mustard crop.

Effect of Sulphur

Significantly the highest plant height (117.33), number of branches/plant (18.67), number of siliquae/plant (1234), seed yield (1636 kg/ha) and stover yield (5592 kg/ha) of cress was recorded under application of 20 kg S/ha. The improvement in crop growth and yield attributes with sulphur application could be ascribed to its pivotal role in regulation of the metabolic and enzymatic processes including photosynthesis and respiration which reflected in increased yield, and positive response to gypsum application for easily available sulphatesulphur and due to its higher solubility. Similar views were expressed by Tomaret al. (1997), Jaggi and Sharma et al. (1997), Kumar et al. (2002) and Ranaet al. (2005) in Indian mustard.

Interaction Effects (N x S)

Interaction effect between nitrogen and sulphur levels was found significant with respect to number siliquae/plant and seed yields of cress. Significantly higher number of siliquae/plant (1377) and seed yields (1779 kg/ha) of cress was noted in treatment combination of N₃S₂ (100 kg N/ha + 20 kg N/ha). Significantly lowest number of siliquae/plant (782) and seed yields (1285 kg/ha) of cress was noted under treatment combination of N₁S₁ (60 kg N/ha + 0 kg S/ha). The maximum yield responses of cress to N and S were observed only when the availability of N and S was in approximate balance, application of nitrogen alone suppressed the seed yield, whereas S alone produced no seed yield response. Similar result were expressed by McGrath and Zhao (1996) in Indian mustard.

Acknowledgment

The authors are highly grateful to the Research Scientist and Head, Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Research Center, AAU, Anand for providing the necessary facilities during the course of investigation.

Table 1: Effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur levels on growth, yield attributes and yield of cress

Table 2: Interaction effect of nitrogen and sulphur on number of siliquae/plant of cress

Table 3: Interaction effect of nitrogen and sulphur on seed yield of cress

Conclusion

From the above results, it can be concluded that for securing higher seed yield of cress, it is advisable that cress crop should be fertilized with nitrogen @ 100 kg N/ha, phosphorus @ 80 kg P₂O₅/ha and sulphur @ 20 kg S/ha.

References

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