Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFICIENT RESOURCE CONSERVATION TECHNOLOGY AND FOLIARFERTILIZATION EFFECT ON GROWTH, YIELD ATTRIBUTES ANDYIELDS OF HYBRID MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.)

Gudapati Ashoka Chakravarthy, M. Thiruppathi, S. Kandasamy and K. Dhanasekaran

Abstract

Soil moisture is one of the important factors that manipulates the growth and yield of the maize crop. It willhelp to supply soil nutrients to the plant to enhance the growth and yield of the crop. Due to the lack ofmoisture in the soil, foliar nutrition is very much affected and thus it reflects on the growth and yield of thecrop. The field experiment was conducted during 2020 – 21 at Annamalai University Experimental Farm,Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram,Tamilnadu, India to maximize the productivity and profitability of maize by adopting various soil moistureconservation techniques and foliar fertilization. The experiment was laid out in Factorial RandomizedBlock Design (FRBD) with three replications. The experiment consists of two factors. In factor I, soil moistureconservation techniques were adopted viz., M1- Control, M2 - Sugarcane trash, M3 - Water hyacinth and M4- Hydrogel. In factor II, foliar nutrient management practice was accommodated such as F1 - control (withoutnutrient), F2 - foliar spray of 1% 19:19:19, F3 - 1% DAP + 1% MOP, F4 - 1% PPFM, F5 - 1% 19:19:19 + 1% PPFMand F6 - 1% DAP + 1% MOP + 1% PPFM. Foliar nutrients were applied at both Knee high and tasselling stages. Among the soil moisture conservation techniques, the results indicated that mulching with Waterhyacinth has registered higher growth parameters, yield parameters and yield than other techniques. Whiledifferent foliar nutrients, the foliar application of 1% DAP + 1% MOP + 1% PPFM (F6) have shown highergrowth, yield parameters and yield than other treatments. With respect to integration of soil moistureconservation techniques and foliar nutrients, mulching with Water hyacinth andfoliar application of 1%DAP + 1% MOP + 1% PPFM (M3F6) recorded higher growth, yield parameters and yield than the rest of thetreatment combinations.