Abstract

Nitrogen and sulphur are fundamental macronutrients for the production of sunflower crop. Nitrogen is required consistently in larger amounts for sunflower production while common urea has more losses due to high solubility. On the other hand, sulphur application increases oil contents and availability of other essential nutrients (N, P, and K). Therefore, combined application of polymer coated urea with sulphur fertilization might be a promising option which can increase achene yield, oil contents, and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). However, no particular studies have been conducted to explore the main and interactive effects of polymer coated urea and sulphur fertilization on growth, physiology, yield, oil contents, and NUE under arid field conditions. Hence, the current field experiment consisted of two nitrogen fertilizers [polymer coated urea (PCU) and common urea (CU)] and three sulphur fertilizer rates [S0 (0), S1 (30) and S2 (60) kg ha−1)] in a split-plot arrangement under randomized complete block design (RCBD) during spring season of 2019 and 2020. Experimental results revealed that growth, physiology, yield, oil contents, and NUE of sunflower crop were significantly improved with the application of nitrogen fertilizers, sulphur fertilizer rates, and their interaction. Meanwhile, NUE, achene yield and oil contents were increased by 16.0–17.2%, 16.5–17.0%, and 2.96–3.19% respectively with the application of PCU compared with CU. Furthermore, NUE, achene yield and oil contents were also increased by 12.8–13.3%, 13.1–13.7%, and 10.7–10.9%, respectively, due to sulphur fertilization of 60 kg ha−1compared with no sulphur application. Similarly, NUE, achene yield, and oil contents were increased by 32.9–39.5%, 31.7–32.6%, and 13.1–13.2% respectively with the application of PCU in combination with sulphur fertilization of 60 kg ha−1compared with CU × S0, which also evidenced a clear and positive interaction between nitrogen and sulphur. Conclusively, PCU (130 kg ha−1) in combination with sulphur fertilization of 60 kg ha−1 is promising option for obtaining higher achene yield, oil contents, and NUE for sunflower crop under arid environment, and hence, it might be a good agronomic adaptation strategy for sustainable production of sunflower.

Highlights

  • Sunflower is currently recognized a new emerging and fourth largest oilseed crop across the world [1]

  • Sunflower crop fertilized with polymer coated urea (PCU) showed significantly higher number of leaves per plant, plant height, total dry matter production (TDM), and NUE as compared with common urea

  • We explored the main and interactive effects of polymer coated urea fertilizer and sulphur application on growth, physiology, and yield attributes and oil contents of sunflower crop and NUE in sunflower production under arid field conditions

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Sunflower is currently recognized a new emerging and fourth largest oilseed crop across the world [1]. Common urea is usually used as a nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied at critical growth stages to meet the dynamic nitrogen demand of crops [7,8]. It is compulsory to optimize nitrogen fertilizer inputs to meet the requirement of sunflower crop and to reduce environmental pollution To cope this problem, controlled release urea fertilizers (polymer coated urea) have developed to increase NUE and sunflower achene yield and to reduce sunflower production cost and making the environment safe [16]. Several studies have found that the application of controlled release fertilizer significantly enhances the growth, physiological, and yield attributes of field crops for instance cotton, sunflower and pakchoi by meeting the dynamic nitrogen demand throughout growing seasons [17,18,19]

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call