EFFECT OF SOIL AND FOLIAR APPLICATION OF ZINC ON YIELD OF WHEAT GROWN UNDER WATER STRESS CONDITION

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to know the effect of irrigation, soil and foliar application of zinc on the growth and yield contributing characteristics of wheat. In this experiment, irrigation viz T - Regular irrigation, T 2 - Skipping irrigation at CRI stage, T - Skipping irrigation at booting stage, T 4 3 - Skipping irrigation at flowering and heading stage and foliar spray of zinc viz Zn 0 - Control, Zn 1 – 0.02%, Zn 2 1 – 0.04% and Zn

– 2.5kg Zn/ha into soil were studied. Data of field experiment were recorded on plant height, spike length, number of grains spike , number of spikelet spike -1 , 1000 grain-weight and total yield of wheat. Results revealed that individual effect of irrigation was significant on all selected parameters. The effect of zinc application was found significant while the higher dose of foliar application of zinc increased the yield of wheat compared with the application of zinc in soil. Results showed that the highest number of grains per spike (48.20) was achieved from both T

and T 4 Zn 2 treatments while T 2 Zn produced the lowest number of grains spike -1 0 (36.12). It was found that the highest 1000-grain weight (54.10g) was exerted by T 4 Zn treatment and the lowest yield of 1000-grain weight (46.67g) was produced from T 2 2 Zn treatment. However, the highest yield of wheat (3.82 t/ha) was exerted by T 0 4 Zn treatment, whereas the lowest yield (1.80t/ha) was found for T 2 Zn 0 2 treatment. From this study, it was revealed that foliar application of zinc was more effective than the application in soil. In addition, skipping irrigation at flowering and heading stage with foliar application of zinc (0.04%) could be recommended for higher yield of wheat. -1 1 Zn 3 2