Studies on Effect of Irrigation Interval and Fertigation Frequency on Crop Growth, Water Use and Productivity of Summer Brinjal

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted for three consecutive summers (2013-15) to evaluate the effect of three drip irrigation intervals viz. one (Every alternate day irrigation), two (Every third day irrigation) and three days(Every 4^th day irrigation) and three fertigation frequencies viz. once a week (Every 7^th day with entire fertilizer dose in 13 equal splits), twice a week (Every 3^th day fertigation with entire dose in 20 equal splits) and twice a month (Every 15^th day with entire dose in 6 equal splits) along with a control arranged in factorial randomized block design with three replications. Results revealed that crop grown with 75 per cent of recommended NPK fertigation under gravity fed drip irrigation gave comparable brinjal yield and gross returns to crop grown with recommended package of practices i.e. fertilization with recommended NPK and surface irrigation of 5 cm at 7 day interval. B: C ratio was significantly lower in former case mainly due to higher cost of soluble fertilizers. Increase in irrigation interval did not have any significant effect on brinjal yield, gross returns, net returns and B: C ratio. Irrigation interval of two days resulted in significantly higher WUE than irrigation interval of either one day (8.68 %) or three day (4.28 %).Fertigation frequency of twice a month resulted in significantly higher brinjal yield (16.86 %) and water use efficiency (19.28 %) than fertigation frequencies of once a week and twice a week, respectively.