Screening groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) genotypes for sulphur efficiency

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted on a sandy clay soil to screen eighteen groundnut genotypes for their sulphur (S) efficiency and to know its effect on growth, yield and sulphur availability and uptake. There were two levels of sulphur (0 and 40 kg ha-1) applied as gypsum basally and replicated thrice in a randomized block design. Results revealed that inclusion of 40 kg S ha-1 as gypsum significantly improved the growth and yield attributes of all the groundnut genotypes besides increasing the kernel and haulm yield. Soil available sulphur and sulphur uptake by the genotypes were also considerably improved by sulphur addition which differs widely among them. Several indices were computed for assessing the sulphur efficiency and found that, the genotypes, VRI 6, CO 7, TMV 7, TMV 13, VRI 5, VRI 3, CO2 and CO 6 were found efficient and responsive for sulphur application while VRI 8, and TMV 10 were inefficient but found responsive. However the varieties such as Local, VRI 4, CO 3, VRI 2, VRI 7, TMV 2, ALR 3 and BSR 1 were highly non responsive and inefficient in utilizing the applied sulphur.