Assessment of yield and quality parameters of irrigated wheat under soil and foliar application of nutrients

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted during the Rabi –2020-21 at experimental Farm, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, ITM University, Gwalior Madhya Pradesh to evaluated the combined effect of soil and foliar applications of nutrients on the growth, yield, protein content and its economics in wheat (Variety, RVW-4106).The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) having three replications. The experiment consisted of eight treatment viz. T1 :Control, T2 : RDF(120 : 60 : 40 kg NPK ha-1), T3 : 50% RDF + foliar spray of 19:19:19 (1%) at 40 & 75 DAS, T4 : 75% RDF + foliar spray of 19:19:19 (1%) at 40 & 75 DAS, T5 : 50% RDF + foliar spray of 19:19:19 (1%) + ZnSO4 (0.5%) at 40 & 75 DAS, T6 : 75% RDF+ foliar spray of 19:19:19 (1%) + ZnSO4 (0.5%) at 40 & 75 DAS, T7 : RDF+ foliar spray of ZnSO4 (0.5%) at 40 & 75 DAS and T8 : RDF + foliar spray of ZnSO4 (0.5%) + FeSO4 (0.5%) at 40 & 75 DAS. The findings of the present study indicated that foliar application of either ZnSO4 or ZnSO4 + FeSO4 at 40 & 75 DAS with RDF recorded significantly higher growth and yield attributes characters of wheat as compared to alone RDF which was comparable to 75% RDF+ foliar spray of 19:19:19 + ZnSO4 and 75% RDF+ foliar spray of 19:19:19 treatment. The maximum grain yield (44.00 q ha-1) recorded with treatment T8 (RDF + foliar spray of ZnSO4 + FeSO4) closely followed by T7 (RDF+ foliar spray of ZnSO4) and T6 (75% RDF+ foliar spray of 19:19:19 + ZnSO4) treatments with 43.52 and 42.57 q ha-1 grain yield. Whereas, The maximum net return of Rs. 69746 ha-1 was recorded under T7 (RDF+ 0.5% foliar spray of ZnSO4) followed by T8 (RDF + foliar spray of ZnSO4 + FeSO4) with Rs. 68908 ha-1The maximum benefit cost ratio of 3.10 was recorded with T7 ((RDF+ 0.5% foliar spray of ZnSO4) treatment followed by T6 (75% RDF+ foliar spray of 19:19:19 + ZnSO4) with B:C ratio of 3.09.