Abstract:
Abstract—Horsegram is an underutilized legume with greater
potential to utilize as food and feed. In the Sri Lankan context,
no fertilizer recommendations have been developed, as such impede
commercial cultivation of horsegram. Hence, a field experiment was
carried out to investigate the crop performance of two varieties
viz; ANKK -black and ANKK-brown under different regimes of
fertilizer applications. The treatment comprised of the full dose
of recommended inorganic fertilizer of mung bean (T1), a half
dose of recommended inorganic fertilizers (T2), compost mix
(T3), and control treatment (T4) were laid down in a split-plot
design replicated three times. The results revealed that variety
ANKK-brown responded superior to the ANKK-black. The highest
chlorophyll content (44.3), dry weight of shoot (29g Plant-1), root
(1.97g plant-1), pods (160 plant-1), and mean grain yield (1877.8
kg ha-1) resulted in T1. However, a significantly increased number
of root nodules (42 plant-1) were produced with T3. Moreover,
there was a positive association between chlorophyll content versus
the number of pods per plant (0.45), shoot (0.52) and root (0.53)
dry matter production. Therefore, the findings suggest that the
horsegram can either be successfully grown with NPK inorganic
fertilizers of 35 kg/ha urea, 100 kg/ha muriate of potash (MOP) and
75 kg/ha triple super phosphate (TSP)] or be with the application of
organic manures at the rates of 10,000kg/ha (T3) without significant compromise in crop yields
