Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

RESPONSE OF KHARIF SORGHUM TO SOIL AND FOLIAR APPLICATION OF MICRONUTRIENTS WITH REFERENCE TO GROWTH AND YIELD PARAMETERS

Anuradha Pawar, P.B. Adsul and Ganesh Gaikwad

Abstract

An experiment was carried out during kharif 2011 to study the response of kharif sorghum to soil and foliar application of micronutrients. Results revealed that ZnSO4, FeSO4 application with RDF (80:40:40 kg ha-1 NPK) exhibited better performance in improving plant height, numbers of leaves, grain weight and panicle weight of kharif sorghum. The soil application of RDF (Recommended Dose of Fertilizer) + 15 kg ZnSO4 + 15 kg FeSO4 ha-1 recorded the highest plant height of 59.66, 153.30 and 270.53 cm on 30, 60 and 90 days after sowing (DAS), respectively and at harvest this treatment was at par with soil application of RDF + 25 kg ZnSO4 ha-1, RDF + soil application of 25 kg FeSO4 ha-1, RDF + 0.5% FeSO4 foliar spray at 15 & 30 DAS, RDF + soil application of 15 kg ZnSO4 + 0.2% ZnSO4 foliar at 15 & 30 DAS, RDF + soil application of 15 kg FeSO4 + 0.5% FeSO4 at 15 & 30 DAS, and significantly superior over rest of the soil and foliar application treatments of micronutrients. The highest number of leaves of 5.6, 9.5, 11.86 plant-1 was observed on 30, 60 and 90 DAS, respectively by soil application of RDF + 15 kg ZnSO4 + 15 kg FeSO4 and RDF + 25 kg ZnSO4 ha-1 treatment, but at harvest it was at par with RDF + soil application of 25 kg ZnSO4 ha-1, RDF + soil application of 25 kg FeSO4 ha-1, RDF + soil application of 15 kg ZnSO4 + 0.2% ZnSO4 foliar at 15 & 30 DAS and RDF+ soil application of 15 kg FeSO4+ 0.5% FeSO4 at 15 & 30 DAS. The highest panicle weight (116.20 g) was obtained by soil application of RDF + 15 kg ZnSO4 + 15 kg FeSO4 ha-1 which was at par with soil application of RDF + 25 kg ZnSO4 ha-1, soil application of RDF + 25 kg FeSO4 ha-1 and RDF + soil application of 15 kg ZnSO4 + 0.2% ZnSO4 foliar at 15 & 30 DAS.