Effect of fertilizer level and spacing on seed yield and quality of babchi (Psoralea corylifolia L.)

Nutrient management and maintenance of optimum number of plants per unit area are considered as important management tool for enhancing the productivity of crop plants. Therefore this experiment was conducted to identify the optimum level of NPK fertilizer and spacing required for obtaining higher seed yield with quality in underutilized medicinal plant babchi (Psoralea corylifolia L.). The evaluation was conducted with three different NPK fertilizers levels (80:40:30, 100:60:50 and 120:80:70 kgha super(-1)) and four different spacings (4530, 4545, 6030 and 6045 cm) in two seasons viz., kharif and rabi. Significant variations were observed in most of the observed parameters, it expressed that the fertilizer recommendation of NPK at 100:60:50 kgha super(-1), adopting the spacing of 6030 cm maximized the seed yield upto 2404 kg ha super(-1) with the resultant seed germination of 43%. It was 27.6% higher than 80:40:30 kg ha super(-1) NPK. The protein (18.69%) content of the seeds was also higher with these management techniques in both the seasons. Therefore the optimum fertilizer recommendation of 100:60:50 kgha super(-1) NPK and spacing of 6030 cm could be recommended for babchi seed production.