Effect of various foliar applied micronutrients (Zn+Fe+Cu+B) on growth and yield of wheat under Faisalabad condition

Abstract

The field trail was conducted at agronomy farm, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan during winter 2020-21, to observe the response of micronutrients (Zn, Fe, Cu and B) on the wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Micronutrients play an important role in the crop production of wheat. Micronutrients deficiency is a major issue which decrease the wheat yield and also deteriorate the quality of the grains. The experiment was comprised of foliar spray of M0 (Control), M1 (Zn), M2 (Fe), M3 (Cu), M4 (B), M5 (Zn + Fe), M6 (Zn + Cu), M7 (Zn + B), M8 (Zn + Fe + Cu + B) treatments with three repetitions and the net plot size was be 3 m × 5 m. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used. Sowing was done by broadcast sowing method, with a seed rate of 125 kg/ha. The fertilizer was applied @ 116:86:65 N:P:K kg/ha, respectively. In this study, an attempt was made to check foliar-applied micronutrients effect on growth stages, yield and yield-components of wheat. The results were evaluated statistically using Fisher's analysis of variance, and the treatment means were compared using Tukey's HSD test at a 5% probability level. The experiment results revealed that micronutrients application at booting stage significantly improved the performance of wheat crop and grain yield. Micronutrients application has a non-significant effect on plant height and number of productive tillers. Among different micronutrient combinations, the (Zn+Fe+Cu+B) treatment combination substantially improved the spike length (cm), No. of spikelets, number of grains, 1000-grain weight (g), grain yield (t ha-1) and Harvest index (%). It can be concluded that (Zn+Fe+Cu+B) have significant effects on yield parameters as compared to other treatments.