Performance of kharif blackgram under integrated use of fly ash, farm yard manure and soil test based fertilizer recommendations

Soil test-based fertilizer recommendation is an imperative-approach that helps in economic benefit to the growers for crop production. A field experiment of blackgram was conducted during kharif 2019–20 and 2020–21 in at Farmers’ Field under Jambad, Block, Purulia, West Bengal. Five different treatments viz. T1, application of ash (3.0 t/ha); T2, Application of ash (3.0 t/ha) with FYM (4 t/ha); T3, application of ash (3.0 t/ha) with FYM (4 t/ha) and DAP (2% foliar application before flowering); T4, application of ash (3.0 t/ha) with FYM (4 t/ha) and inorganic fertilizers (RDF – N:P:K 20:40:60); and T5, application of ash (3.0 t/ha), FYM (4 t/ha) and soil test based fertilizer recommendations (N:P:K 25:50:25). The experiment was carried out in randomized block design with 4 replications. The results indicated that soil organic carbon, available N, P, K, Fe and B was significantly increased with the application of T5. The application of T5 improved seed yield of blackgram by 11.26% and 11.32%, respectively in 2019–20 and 2020–21, and also resulted higher B:C ratio (2.41 and 2.17). Character association analysis of yield component features revealed a positive and significant relationship between seed yield with plant height (r = 0.90), number of branches/plant (r = 0.98), number of pods/plant (r = 0.96) and number of seeds/pod (r = 0.90). Results in field that the application of ash (3.0 t/ha) and FYM (4 t/ha) along with soil test-based fertilizer recommendations (T5), could be a viable option for enhancing the blackgram productivity under slightly acidic soil conditions.