Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SULPHUR AND POTASH ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF POTATO

Kalyan Singh Raghuwanshi, K.V. Singh, Arjun Kashyap, Pratibha Jatav and Ajay Dangi

Abstract

Potato is a very important vegetable crop of India.Nutrients impart great impact on yield and quality of potato. Sulphur is fourth major nutrient after NPK, required by plants. Sulphur plays an essential role in chlorophyll formation and therefore helps to give plants their green colour. Many enzymes, which are essential for biochemical reactions within the plant cell, are activated by sulphur. Potassium is involved in many aspects of the plant physiology it activates more than 60 enzyme systems, aids in photosynthesis, favors high energy status, maintains cell turgor, promotes water uptake, regulates nutrients translocation in plant, favors carbohydrate transport and storage, enhances N uptake and protein synthesis and promotes starch synthesis. Therefore present experiment was undertaken in the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, RVSKVV Gwalior, (M.P.) during the year of 2014-15 to study the effect of different levels of sulphur and potash on growth and yield of potato. Experiment was laid out in R.B.D. (Factorial) with 12 treatments. Three sulphur level (0, 20 & 30 kg/ha) and four potash levels (0, 100, 150 & 200 kg/ha). The result reveals that significantly higher value of growth parameter viz., plant height, number of shoot, number of leaves, fresh & dry weight of shoot and yield of potato (297.42 q/ha) was obtained under application of 30 kg sulphur, followed by 20 kg/ha sulphur. In case of potash levels, increasing potash levels significantly increase growth and yield of potato. Maximum growth parameters and yield of potato was found with application of 200 kg/ha potash. The minimum values of growth characters and yield was found with control plot.