Effect of organic manure and potash fertilizer on yield and yield attributes of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill

A field experiment entitled ‘‘Effect of organic manure and potash fertilizer on growth of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill)” was conducted on medium black clay soil of Instructional Farm, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh (Gujarat) during kharif season of 2009. The experiment comprising nine treatment combinations of three levels of organic manure viz., no organic manure (M0), FYM @ 5.0 t ha-1 (M1) and vermicompost @ 0.25 t ha-1 (M2) and three levels of potash fertilizer viz., no potash (K0), potash @ 20 kg ha-1 (K1) and potash @ 40 kg ha-1 (K2) were tried in factorial randomized block design with four replications. The result showed that the application of FYM @ 5.0 t ha-1 (M1) produced significantly highest Number of pods per plant (64.50), Number of seeds per pod (2.71), Seed yield per plant (12.90 g), Test weight (15.50 g), Seed yield (1700 kg ha-1) and Stover yield (2000 kg ha-1), which was 29.86, 9.72, 32.99,10.71,20.74 and 17.03 per cent higher over control (M0), respectively and also application of vermicompost @ 0.25 t ha-1 (M2) found statistically equivalent to FYM in respect of Seed yield per plant, Test weight, Seed yield (kg ha-1) and Stover yield (kg ha-1) which increased Seed yield per plant, Test weight, Seed yield (kg ha-1) and Stover yield (kg ha-1) to the 24.74,5.71,12.93,and 10.53 per cent over control (M0), respectively. Different potash levels significant influence on yield attributes and yield. Similarly aapplication of potash @ 40 kg ha-1 (K2) recorded significantly highest Number of pods per plant (62), Number of seeds per pod (2.66), Seed yield per plant (g) (12.23), Test weight (g)(15.25), Seed yield (kg ha-1) (1670) and Stover yield (kg ha-1) (1971), which were 21.98, 5.98,20.26,6.94,14.38 and 12.05 per cent higher over control (K0), respectively.