Response of Soil Applied Urea and Foliar Applied Nano Urea on the Growth, Yield and Quality of Kharif Sesame (Sesamum indicum) under the Central Plain Agro-climatic Zone of Punjab

Background: In context of oilseeds like Sesamum nitrogen is an important major or primary nutrient which is essential specifically for plant height, dry matter accumulation plant-1, development of pod and seed. Deficiency of Nitrogen in sesame results in lower vegetative growth, yield and dry matter partitioning. Along with this it also increase the photosynthetic rate and total chlorophyll content and application of nitrogen fertilizers through nano urea increases nitrogen use efficiency. Nano Urea is low cost technology and required in small quantities. Nano urea produces less hazardous effect on environment. It will also help in decreasing the amount of greenhouse gasses production and their release into the atmosphere. Even though the several research works are already available on effect of foliar spray in Sesame, scope of spray nano urea with different nitrogen levels in Sesame enabled us to take up this experiment. Methods: The present field experiment was carried out during Kharif season of 2022 at Agronomy Research Fields, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab. Nitrogen is applied to sesame through soil as mineral nitrogen and foliar spray. The data pertaining to growth characteristics, yield characteristics, gross monetary returns and net monetary returns of sesame (kharif) was collected at regular interval in 2022-23 which was analyzed statistically in SPD (Split Plot Design) with 12 treatment combinations replicated thrice. Result: Significantly higher plant height (cm), no. of functional leaves plant-1, stem girth (cm) and dry matter accumulation (g plant -1) were registered with application F3 -100% RDN through soil application of mineral nitrogen to sesame over rest of treatments at 40 DAS, 60 DAS, 80 DAS and at harvest. Among the foliar application of nano-urea to sesame, treatment F4- 25% N recorded significantly higher plant height (cm), no. of functional leaves plant-1, stem girth (cm) and dry matter accumulation (g plant -1) over lower levels of treatments and found at with treatment F3-20% N at 40 DAS, 60 DAS, 80 DAS and at harvest.However at harvest higher number of dry capsules plant-1, number of seeds capsules-1, seed yield (q ha-1), straw yield (q ha-1) and oil content (%) were obtained by F3 -100% RDN through soil application of mineral nitrogen to sesame over all other treatments to sesame. Foliar application of F4 - 25% N and F3- 20% N to Sesame both being at par with each other and registered significantly higher number of dry capsules plant-1, number of seeds capsules-1, seed yield (q ha-1), straw yield (q ha-1) and oil content (%) over remaining levels of foliar applications of nano urea.