Journal ID : AMA-07-12-2022-11871
[This article belongs to Volume - 53, Issue - 12]
Total View : 394

Title : Influence of Forage Radish Cover Crop on Growth and Yield of Vegetable Crops in an Intensive Vegetable Cropping System

Abstract :

Radish mostly forage radish (Raphanus sativus L.var. longipinnatus) cover crop (CC) being a short-duration crop can be easily incorporated into the vegetable cropping system for sustainable production of vegetable crops. In the present experiment, the incorporation of forage radish CC biomasses before and after the harvest of vegetable crops provided numerous benefits. Vegetative growth and yield attributing parameters in terms of plant height, branch number, average fruit number, average fruit weight, stem diameter etc. of okra, bitter gourd, chilli, dolichos bean, amaranthus and cowpea were found to be higher in CC treatment compared to bare fallow control devoid of CC. Among the different levels of CC used complete ground cover with cent percent CC recorded better in terms of growth and yield attributes compared to 75 and 50 percent surface cover. The yield of vegetable crops in the cropping system was found to be positively influenced by the levels of forage radish CC compared to the non-adoption of CC in the control. The crop duration of the vegetable crops was also enhanced by the use of CC compared to control devoid of CC, and the harvesting duration of vegetable crops was prolonged due to the use of CC. For sustainable vegetable crop production with 200% vegetable cropping intensity in the sandy soil of Gossaigaon, Assam, India forage radish CC (Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus), syn. Daikon or Japanese radish can be used as CC before sowing spring-summer and summer season vegetable crops.

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