Effect of Fertility Level, Plant Density and Methods of Planting on the Performance of Rainfed Pigeonpea

A field experiment was conducted during the rainy (Kharif) seasons of 2002–03 and 2003–04 to study the effects of plant density and fertility level on growth and yield of rainfed pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) under flat and ridge planting methods. Ridge planting proved better for higher seed yield (27.05 q ha−1). A plant density of 8.33 plants m−2 exhibited its superiority by recording higher values of all yield contributing characters and resulted in significantly higher seed yield than 6.66 plants m−2, the increase being 1.2 and 11.0% during 2002–03 and 2003–04, respectively. Further increase in plant density (11.1 plants m−2) had no yield advantage. The increased level of fertility improved the yield and yield attributes. Maximum values of yield attributes and seed yield were recorded with the highest fertility level (40-80-40-40-6). The seed yield increased with highest fertility level by 2.1 and 6.8 per cent over 20-40-20-20-3 (N-P2O5-K2O-S-Zn kg ha−1) in 2002–03 and 2003–04, respectively.