Vol. 7, Issue 10 (2018)

Author(s):
Reshma Bora, Santosh K Yadav, Aaradhana Chilwal, Varsha Chauhan and Sunita Bhandari

Abstract:
The present study “Effect of long term balance fertilizer application on growth parameters of rice (Oryza sativa L.)” was conducted at A2 block of N. E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) during kharif 2017. These treatments were a part of long-term fertility experiment since 1984. Nine treatments out of fourteen consisting different combination of N, P, K, Znf and FYM were tested in a Randomized Block Design with four replications. The variety sown was HKR47. It was noticed that compared to recommended dose of fertilizer (N₁₂₀P₄₀K₄₀ +Znf), plant height, shoots /m² and dry matter accumulation were significantly higher in all the inorganic treatments while addition of farm yard manure further increased the all the growth parameters significantly over all the other treatments. The highest values of plant height, shoots m^-2and plant dry matter accumulation were recorded with N₁₂₀P₄₀K₄₀+Znf+FYMr treatment which was followed by N₁₂₀P₄₀K₄₀ +FYMr treatment, both being at par with each other. The better growth and development in FYM added plots was due to an adequate supply of nutrients and improvement in soil physical and biological conditions of soil. Chemical fertilizer treatment of N₁₂₀K₄₀, P₄₀K₄₀, N₁₂₀P₄₀ and N₁₂₀ alone resulted in poor growth, reduced plant height, shoot number and plant dry matter accumulation of crop. However, the lowest values of these characters were obtained with unfertilized control plot. The reduced growth due to the imbalanced application of nutrients was due to depletion of other nutrients, especially P. The experiment thus suggests the importance of balanced nutrition in proper growth and development of rice.