Vol. 11, Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
Satish Prajapati, Veerendra Kumar, Sudhakar Singh, Adesh Singh and Amit Kumar

Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted during Kharif season 2016-17 at Crop Research Centre (Chirori) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.) to study the effect of balanced fertilization on growth, yield attributes and nutrient uptake in maize. The nine treatments viz; T₁ (Control), T₂ (N), T₃ (NP), T₄ (Recommended NPK), T₅ (NPK + S), T₆ (NPK + S + Zn), T₇ (NPK + S + Zn + Fe), T₈ (NPK + S + Zn + Fe + B) and T₉ (NPK + FYM + PSB) were tested in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The maize variety K-25 (Kanchan) was grown and its performance in relation to growth and development, nutrient uptake, soil properties and nitrogen use efficiency as influenced by different treatments were assessed. Results obtained from the study revealed that plant height, number of functional leaves, chlorophyll content, dry matter accumulation, yield attributions and uptake of nutrients in maize were significantly superior with the application of NPK + S + Zn + Fe + B (T₈) as compared to rest of the treatments, except T₅ (NPK + Zn), T₆ (NPK + S + Zn), T₇ (NPK + S + Zn + Fe) and T₉ (NPK + FYM + PSB). However, the maize also accumulated significantly higher nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur in grains, stover as well as total (189.48, 48.95, 178.36 and 61.24 kg/ha, respectively) as compared to T₁ (control), T₂ (N alone) and T₃ (NP).