Effect of hydrogel and irrigation scheduling on growth, yield and quality of summer pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.)

Field experiment was conducted on “Effect of hydrogel and irrigation scheduling on growth, yield and quality of summer pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.)” was carried out during summer season of 2020 at the Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. There were nine treatment combination consisting of three irrigation scheduling based on IW/CPE ratio (I1= 0.6, I2= 0.8 and I3= 1.0) and three hydrogels (H1= 0.0 kg/ha, H2= 2.5 kg/ha and H3= 5.0 kg/ha) were tested in a split plot design with three replications. Results indicated that scheduling irrigation at an IW/CPE ratio of 1.0 recorded significantly higher values of plant height (30, 60 DAS and at harvest), number of tillers per plant. Similarly, irrigation scheduling at 1.0 recorded significantly higher value of yield and quality components viz., effective tillers per plant, length and girth of earhead as well as grain weight per earhead, grain yield (4563 kg/ha), stalk yield (7718 kg/ha) and protein yield. Almost all the growth characters, yield attributes, grain and stalk yields as well as net return and B : C ratio of pearl millet was found significantly higher when crop was sown at H2 (hydrogel at 5.0 kg/ha) over H1 (hydrogel at 2.5 kg/ha) and H0 (hydrogel at 0.0 kg/ha). Interaction between irrigation scheduling and hydrogel levels was also observed significant for number of effective tillers per plants, grain weight per earhead, grain and stalk yield ha-1 under treatment combination I3H2 followed by I2H2.In correlation study indicated that grain yield had highly significant positive correlation with almost all the growth and yield attributes and quality traits. Higher gross and net realization with B:C ratio were obtained when crop was irrigated with IW/CPE ratio of 1.0 and hydrogel at 5.0 kg/ha followed by 0.8 IW/CPE ratio on medium black soil of South Saurashtra Agro climatic conditions.