Effect of Doses and Sources of Nutrients on Growth, Yield and Quality of Timely Sown Irrigated Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L .)

Abstract

Considering the food and nutritional security concerns and post green revolution’s second generation problems i.e. increasing input use with declining efficiency trends, deteriorating soil health, depleting water resources, pollution and narrowing profits at the end of farmers, an investigation “Effect of doses and sources of nutrients on growth, yield and quality of timely sown irrigated wheat (Triticum aestivum L .)” was carried out on well drained sandy clay loam soil, low in organic carbon and available nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus, potassium and zinc and moderately alkaline in pH during 2020-21 at crop research centre of SVPUA&T, Meerut (U.P.) Novel nutrient sources and their modes of applications with 12 treatments consisting of control, basal application of recommended 100% NPK (150:60:40), 75% NPK (112.5:45:30) + NPK Consortia seed treatment (250 ml in 3 litre water 60 kg-1 seed) + NPK (18:18:18 @15 g l-1) + Bio-stimulant (625 ml ha-1) + Nano N (4 ml l-1) + Nano Zn (10 ml l-1) in various combinations were attempted on wheat variety HD 2967 in RBD design with three replications. The results of the study revealed that wheat grown with 75 % NPK + NPK Consortia + NPK + Bio-stimulant + Nano Zn spray attainted significantly better growth as reflected by taller plants (110.6 cm), more no. of tillers m-1 row length (68.9), higher dry matter accumulation g m-1 row length (294.0), CGR (5.8 g m-2 day-1) and RGR (0.0022 g g-1 day-1) recorded at harvest over RDF as also noticed by Mehta (2017). Yield attributes and yields viz. effective tillers m-2 (301.0), number of grains spike-1 (48.2), test weight (39.1 g), grain yield (55.9 q ha-1) and straw yield (71.5 q ha-1) were also higher in the crop as against respective value of 272.7, 44.2, 37.6, 49.1 & 71.9 with 100% NPK and 224.0, 37.1, 33.5, 28.3 & 47.9 with control. The crop contained 2.1% N, 0.25% P, 0.54% K and 53.4 ppm Zn in grain and 0.61% N, 0.12% P, 1.20% K and 32.1 ppm Zn in straw. Such crop accumulated 162.3 kg N, 22.8 kg P, 118.6 kg K and 535.1 g Zn ha-1. Application of 75% NPK with NPK Consortia + NPK spray, NPK Consortia + NPK + Bio-stimulant spray, NPK Consortia + NPK + Bio-stimulant + Nano Zn spray, NPK Consortia + Nano Zn spray and NPK Consortia + Nano N + Nano Zn spray worked synergistically and increased grain yields by 6.3, 8.9, 13.8, 3.0 and 11.6% respectively over 100% NPK. Respective increase in protein yield was 116.3, 160.4, 250.6, 12.9 and 237.4 kg ha-1over 100% NPK. Similar result was also put forward by Sharma et al. (2015). Nutrient use efficiency i.e. agronomic efficiency for N, P & K (24.5, 61.3 & 92.0 kg of grain in yield increase kg-1of nutrient applied), physiological efficiency for N, P & K (23.4, 156.9 & 37.7 kg of yield increase kg-1 of nutrient absorbed) and partial factor productivity for N, P & K (49.7, 124.2 & 186.3 kg of grain kg-1 of nutrient applied) was also better under treatment. Soil organic carbon (0.49 %), available N (196.2 kg ha-1), available P (11.1 kg ha-1), available K (149.1 kg ha-1), available Zn (0.86 mg kg-1), population of bacteria (0.78 No.×106 cfu g-1), fungi (0.67 No.×104 cfu g-1) & actinomycetes (0.63 No.×103 cfu g-1)) was also higher with the treatment. The crop required an investment of ₹ 44241 ha-1 and fetched net return of ₹102763 with B:C ratio of 3.3 with 100 % NPK + Bio-stimulant spray. Similar trend was observed by Kumar et al. (2014). Thus, the wheat crop grown with application of 100 % NPK + Bio-stimulant spray had attained better growth (plant height, no. of tiller, dry matter accumulation, CGR, RGR, yield attributes (effective tillers, ear length, spikelets per spike, grains per spike, test weight) yield (grain, straw and biological), nutrient use efficiency, nutrient content, nutrient uptake, protein content, protein yield and fetched higher net returns with higher B:C ratio. Soil physico-chemical (bulk density, particle density, aggregate stability, EC, pH, organic carbon), available nutrient N, P, K and Zn) and biological properties (bacteria, fungi & actinomycetes).