Influence of nipping and spacing on growth and yield of rainfed horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum)

A field trial was conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to investigate the influence of nipping and spacing on the growth and yield of rainfed horsegram. The experiment consisted of 18 treatment combinations with two factors studied under factorial randomized block design with two replications. The factor one with three levels of crop geometry (C1: Broadcasting, C2: 30 X 10 cm, C3: 30 X 20 cm) and second factor with six levels of nipping (N1: manual nipping, N2: mepiquat chloride 125 ppm, N3: mepiquat chloride 250 ppm, N4: chlormequat chloride 125 ppm, N5: chlormequat chloride 250 ppm, N6: no nipping). Nipping and growth retardants spray was done at 55 DAS, Growth and yield parameters such as plant height, number of branches, number of pods plant-1, number of seeds pod-1, test weight and harvest index were recorded. Spacing of 30 X 10 cm recorded significantly higher yield (803 kg ha-1), whereas more number of branches (7.2), higher number of pods plant-1 (46.94) were recorded with a spacing of 30 X 20 cm. Spraying of mepiquat chloride 250 ppm recorded significantly higher yield (872 kg ha-1), more number of branches (8.1), higher number of pods plant-1 (54.85) and higher harvest index (0.233) followed by spraying of chlormequat chloride 250 ppm spray with a yield of 809 kg ha-1. Among the treatment combinations, spacing of 30 X 10 cm with mepiquat chloride spray recorded the higher yield (946 kg ha-1).