Effect of sources and levels of zinc on growth rate, grain yield and economics in shalimar QPMH-1 hybrid

Abstract

Zinc deficiency can result in significant losses in the yield of maize. Therefore, an experimental field trial was conducted at the Agronomy Research Farm, located within the Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura, Sopore SKUAST-Kashmir during kharif season 2021 to study the impact of various sources and levels of zinc on growth and yield performance of Quality Protein maize. The experiment consisted of two sources of Zinc viz. Zinc Oxide, Zinc Sulphate and five levels of Zinc viz. control, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% and 1.0%, the setup followed a factorial complete block design, consisting of 3 replications. Zinc was applied as foliar spray @ 50 DAS. The findings of the experiment revealed significant variations in terms of growth, yield and economics for various treatments under investigation. Among the various treatments, application of zinc oxide at a concentration of 1%, exhibited superior performance in terms of plant growth attributes, yield components, and overall yield. It recorded the highest grain yield amounting to 53.92 q/ ha.Additionally, the application of zinc oxide @ 1% resulted in the highest net returns and a favourable benefittocost (B:C) ratio of 1.75 followed by application of zinc oxide @ 0.75%) and zinc sulphate @ 1%. Among all the treatments, lowest plant growth, yield and economic suitability was recorded with control (ZnSO4). Hence, application of zinc oxide @ 1% was found economically suitable and sustainable followed by application of zinc oxide @ 0.75% and zinc sulphate @ 1%.