Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 86 (6): 825–9, June 2016/Short Communication Effect of boron and molybdenum on growth, yield and quality of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var botrytis) cv. Snowball 16 D K NINGAWALE 1 , R SINGH 2 , U S BOSE 3 , P S GURJAR 4 , ANCHAL SHARMA 5 and U S GAUTAM 6 College of Agriculture, JNKVV, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh 486 001 Received: 24 August 2015; Accepted: 28 December 2015 Key words: Boron, Molybdenum, Quality, Yield 1 Student, Department of Horticulture, 2 Subject Matter Specialist (e mail: rajeshsinghjnkvv@yahoo.com), Department of Horticulture, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, 3 Associate Professor, 4 Senior Research Fellow (e mail: pushpendrasingh2003@gmail.com), 5 Research Associate (e mail: anchaljnkvv@gmail.com), MPWSRP, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, JNKVV, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 486 001, 6 Zonal Project Director, Zone IV (ICAR), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208 002. Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) is one of the most popular cruciferous vegetables. This crop often shows the deficiency symptoms of boron and molybdenum as browning of curd and whiptail disorder, respectively. These disorders render curds unfit, for human consumption and reduce the curd yield considerably. Cauliflower responds well to macro nutrients–nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. However, micro–nutrients are also essential for its proper growth and yield especially boron, molybdenum, iron, etc. The response to the foliar application of micronutrients has been very spectacular as they play important role in flowering and fruiting processes, pollen germination, cell division and metabolism of carbohydrates. Due to boron deficiency water soaked areas appear on the stem and head surface, gradually the stem becomes hollow and curd turns brown. Again the molybdenum deficiency appears on young plant with chlorosis of leaf margins and gradually the whole leaf turns white. As a result the leaf blade fails to develop properly and only the midrib portions develop resulting sword like appearance of leaves giving whiptail symptom. Besides, the quantity of boron and molybdenum depend on soil type, soil reaction and the extent of deficiency (Lal 1993). Keeping in view, the importance of micronutrients in cauliflower the present investigation was carried out to find out effect of boron and molybdenum in cauliflower for growth, yield and quality of cauliflower in Kymore Plateau of Madhya Pradesh. A field experiment was conducted in the experimental field of Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Rewa under Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur during the rabi season 2009-2010. The soil of 125 experimental site was mixed red black with clay loam in texture and having depth of 4. The pH of soil was 7.23 and available nutrients were, nitrogen (288.75 kg/ha), phosphorous (19.71 kg/ha) and potassium (288.4 kg/ha). The experiment was carried out in randomized block design with four replications using Snowball-16 variety. The treatment combinations consist of T 1 (Control), T 2 (Borax @ 100 ppm as foliar spray), T 3 (Ammonium molybdate @ 50 ppm as foliar spray), T 4 (Borax @ 100 ppm + ammonium molybdate @ 50 ppm as foliar spray), T 5 (Borax @ 10 kg/ ha as soil application), T 6 (Borax@ 20 kg/ha as soil application), T 7 (Ammonium molybdate @ 1 kg/ha as soil application), T 8 (Ammonium molybdate @ 2 kg/ha as soil application), T 9 (Borax @ 10 kg/ha + ammonium molybdate @ 1 kg/ha as soil application), T 10 (Borax @ 10 kg/ha + ammonium molybdate @ 2 kg/ha as soil application), T 11 (Borax @ 20 kg/ha + ammonium molybdate @ 1 kg/ha as soil application) and T 12 (Borax@ 20 kg/ha + ammonium molybdate@ 1 kg/ha as soil application, Borax contain 11% boron and ammonium molybdate contain 98.99% tracer element). The crop was grown with the recommended dose of N: P: K (100:60:80 kg/ha) and FYM@ 200q/ha. Full dose of phosphorus, potash half dose of nitrogen along with different doses of boron and molybdenum (as per treatments) were applied as soil application before transplanting. The remaining half dose of nitrogen was applied at 30 days after transplanting (DAT) and three consecutive foliar sprays of different doses of boron and molybdenum (as per treatments) was done at 10 days interval starting from 30 DAT. Thirty eight days old healthy and uniform seedlings of cauliflower were transplanted on 24 November 2009 in the experimental field at a spacing of 60 cm × 45 cm. Observations on plant height, number of leaves/plant, length of leaves, width of leaves, stem girth, diameter of curd, fresh weight of curd, yield/plot, yield/ha, grading percentage of curds and dry matter of curd percentage were recorded on plants from each replication. The grading of curd is normally on the basis of visual observations. The data were average and statistically analyzed according to Fisher (1958).