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A field experiment was conducted at Main Agricultural Research Station (MARS), University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, to know the effect of water soluble fertilizers on growth, yield and oil content of groundnut (Cv TAG 24).  The experiment was conducted in a Vertisol with ten treatment combinations consisting of FYM and different doses of recommended NPK as basal soil application and foliar spray of water soluble fertilizers at 30, 45 and 60 days after sowing in a Randomized complete block design with three replications. Application of FYM + 100% RDF + foliar spray of fertilizers at 30, 45 and 60 DAS showed higher pod yield (5615 kg/ha) which was 22% higher over application of 100% RDF alone (4601 kg/ha). But the crop was equally responsive in increasing the pod yield, when RDF was reduced by 15% along with foliar application of water soluble grade fertilizer. The yield components, kernel yield (3892 kg/ha), haulm yield (8916 kg/ha), total number of pods plant-1 (33.80), =sound mature kernels (88.67) and oil yield (1858 kg/ha) were highest in the treatment of FYM + 100% RDF + foliar spray of fertilizers over rest of the treatments. But the highest Benefit cost ratio (4.40) was found in the treatment of FYM + 85% RDF + foliar application of fertilizers followed by the treatment of FYM + 100% RDF + foliar application of fertilizers (4.36) whereas the lowest B: C ratio (3.91) was observed in control.

A soil survey was carried out in different groundnut growing calcareous Vertisols of Dharwad district, Karnataka, India. One hundred surface composite soil samples were collected from five talukas (mandal) of Dharwad district and analyzed for soil chemical properties and nutrient status. The results showed that soil pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, free CaCO3 content ranged from 6.9-8.9, 0.15-1.79 dS m-1, 2.40-9.10 g kg-1, 5.8 -22.2 respectively across the regions. Available nitrogen, phosphorus (P2O5), potassium (K2O) and sulphur contents widely varied from 107-268, 18.5 - 56.0 and 386- 876, 14.8- 41.0 kg ha-1, respectively. On the basis of nutrient index values, groundnut growing calcareous soils of Dharwad were categorized as deficient in available nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus and high in available potassium. Most of the samples were deficient in available Fe and Zn whereas DTPA-extractable Cu and Mn were above the critical limits. A significant and positive correlation was found between organic carbon and available nitrogen (r=0.730**). However, a negative correlation was observed between Soil pH and micro nutrients while CaCO3 was negatively correlated with available iron (r=-0.31**).