Optimizing cultivation practices to enhance growth and yield of Indian mustard

Since mustard is a significant oilseed crop in India, improving cultivation practises is essential for enhancing the productivity. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications at the farm of Department of Agronomy, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara during the rabi season. The work was carried out for two years to analyse the pooled data (2022-2023; 2023-2024) of Indian mustard. A total of 11 treatments were utilized with various sowing techniques, sulphur use, and mulching for enhanced yield on mustard growth and yield traits. With an increase in doses of sulphur, mulching with paddy straw and sowing techniques including flat bed and ridge sowing the growth characteristics such as plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant increased and enhanced yield traits. Results from the study revealed that among the various treatments, the application of Treatment T9 = Ridge sowing + recommended NP (100:75 kg/ha) + recommended S (20 kg/ha) + mulching (Paddy straw) had more growth and improved yield as compared to other treatments of Indian mustard. The pooled analysis of data from 2022 to 23 and 2023-24 revealed that treatment T9 achieved the maximum plant heights, measuring 14.8 cm, 80.8 cm, and 131.2 cm at 30, 60, and 90 DAS, number leaves per plant (6.0, 38.8, 83.2) at 30, 60, 90 DAS and number of branches (3.2, 6.7) at 60, 90 DAS. In yield analysis, the greatest number of siliquae per plant (73.6), the longest siliquae length (4.3), seeds per siliquae (23.1), 1000 seed weight peaked at 3.5, seed yield was 1.6 t/ha, stover yield was 4.1 t/ha, and harvest index was 29.6% in 2022-23 analysis. Overall, from pooled analysis the 2022-23 mustard crop had more growth and yield as compared to 2023-24 mustard crop.