Ashok Kumar Samota, P.C. Chaplot, J. Choudhary, R.H. Meena, Devendra Jain and Amit Dadheech
Abstract
A field experiment entitled âEffect of Hydrogel Levels and Plant Growth Regulators on Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under Rainfed Conditionâ was conducted on clay loam soil having low in available nitrogen (273.65 to 278.01 kg ha-1), medium in available phosphorus (18.57 to 20.23 kg ha-1) and high in available potassium status (313.63 to 319.47 kg ha-1) with slightly alkaline in reaction at the Instructional Farm, RCA, MPUAT, Udaipur during the rabi season 2023-24 and 2024-25 with the objective to evaluate the performance of hydrogel levels and plant growth regulators under rainfed condition. The experiment comprised of four hydrogel levels (0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 kg ha-1) and plant growth regulators (water spray, salicylic acid at 100 ppm, CaCl2 at 0.2 %, mepiquat chloride at 500 ppm, KCl at 0.1 % and thiourea at 500 ppm) thereby involving 24 treatment combination which was replicated three time in factorial RBD. The result revealed that among four hydrogel levels 7.5 kg ha-1 recorded the maximum plant height and DMA at successive growth stages and primary branches plant-1 which remained at par with application of 5.0 kg hydrogel ha-1 and both these levels significantly increased as compared to application of 2.5 kg ha-1 and control during both years.