Integrated nutrient management in Oat (Avena sativa L.) under reclaimed sodic soil 

Oat (Avena sativa L.) is used as a green fodder, straw, hay or silage. A field experiment was carried out during 2008-2009 with the concept of integrated nutrient management at Aurawan Research Centre of CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. The treatments of the experiments were T1- Control, T2- NPK (80:40:40 kg ha-1), T3- ½ NPK (40:20:20 kg ha-1) + FYM (10 t ha-1), T4- ½ NPK + FYM (10 t ha-1) + Trichoderma, T5- ½ NPK + FYM (10 t ha-1) + PSB and T6- ½ NPK + FYM (10 t ha-1) + Trichoderma + PSB with 4 replications in randomized block design (RBD).  Results indicated that all the treatment showed significant response over control. Maximum plant height at 120 days (157.7 cm), tillersplant-1 at 90 days (6.4), length of spike (38.7 cm), test weight (28.6 g), grain yield (34.9 q ha-1), straw yield (82.8 q ha-1) were recorded with T2- NPK (80:40:40 kg ha-1) which was significantly higher than all the treatments except T3- ½ NPK (40:20:20 kg ha-1) + FYM (10 t ha-1) and T4- ½ NPK + FYM (10 t ha-1) + Trichoderma, followed by treatment T6- ½ NPK + FYM (10 t ha-1) + Trichoderma + PSB showing the value of plant height at 120 days (154.8 cm), tillers/plant at 90 days (6.3), length of spike (37.6 cm), test weight (28.3 g), grain yield (33.1 q ha-1) and straw yield (81.1 q ha-1). Seed treatment with PSB (T5) also responded significantly over control in all the parameters and remained at par with T2 and T6. However, combined seed treatment with PSB + Trichoderma (T6) was much effective in comparison to single inoculation of Trichoderma or PSB.