Management of sugarcane distillery spent wash for improving the growth, yield and quality of wheat crop

Abstract

Disposal of industrial wastewater is a current issue of urbanization. However, this problem can be sorted out by using wastewater as an alternate source of irrigation after the addition of some amendment. The present study was performed at the Shakarganj Sugar Research Institute (SSRI) Jhang, Pakistan to determine the influence of different combinations of distillery spent wash (DSW) and NPK fertilizers on growth, yield and nutrient uptake of wheat crop. The experiment was composed of different combinations of DSW and NPK (0:0, 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, 100:0). The results revealed that the application of different combinations of DSW and NPK significantly improved the growth, yield, and nutrient uptake in wheat crop. The maximum improvement in growth attributes (LAI, LAD, CGR and TDM) was recorded with the application of 25:75% DSW and NPK fertilizers. Similarly, application of 25:75% DSW and NPK improved the plant height, fertile tillers, 1000 grain weight, biological yield grain yield nitrogen uptake, phosphorus uptake and potassium uptake up to 32.88%, 37.5%, 38.87%, 34.61%, 78.42%, 62.42%, 92.55% and 73.25% respectively, over the control. In conclusion, application of 25:75% DSW and NPK was proven superior to other combinations in terms of growth, yield and nutrient uptake.