International Journal of Plant & Soil Science

A field experiment was conducted at Research Farm, JNKVV-College of Agriculture, Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh) during rabi season 2019-20 to assess the effect of phosphorus fertilization and PSB inoculation on growth attributes and root nodulation of chickpea. Results revealed that the vegetative growth parameters were, in general, enhanced very fast between 30 to 90 days thereafter the rise was normally very slow up to the crop maturity stage. Thus, at harvest stage, plant height ranged from 49.5 to 67.9 cm and branches 9.40 to 13.0 plant^-1 under various treatments.

Amongst the all treatments, 50 kg P₂O₅ + PSB + 2% DAP foliar spray resulted in significantly higher number of root nodules plant^-1and fresh and dry weight of root nodules plant^-1at 30, 45, 60, and 75 DAS followed by 25 kg P₂O₅ + PSB + 2% DAP spray before flowering stage. Similarly the same treatments also enhanced the fresh and dry matter production per plant up to the maximum extent, being significantly higher to the single applied P levels or with each of PSB and DAP spray.