Abstract
Background: Nitrogen is essential for chlorophyll formation which significantly influencing the growth and yield of crops. This study aimed to enhance maize leaf chlorophyll content by ensuring a steady nitrogen supply throughout the growing period. A field experiment was conducted using biodegradable polymer coated urea as a slow release nitrogenous fertilizer to achieve chlorophyll enrichment in maize. Methods: There were nine treatments including uncoated urea, various biodegradable polymer-coated urea and commercially available coated urea fertilizer formulations were compared. Result: In enhancing the leaf area index and chlorophyll content of maize, pine oleoresin-coated urea (POCU) and humic acid-coated urea (HACU) showed superior performance over other urea fertilizers. Leaf area index (LAI), a key indicator of canopy development, average LAI was significantly higher in POCU (2.71) and HACU (2.70) treatments which was 32.8 and 32.4% higher than uncoated urea treatment respectively. This leading to higher photosynthetic efficiency and biomass accumulation resulted, higher chlorophyll content in maize by POCU and HACU treatments. In particular, POCU showed maximum chlorophyll ‘a’ (1.58 mg mL-1) and ‘b’ (0.49 mg mL-1) content as well as total chlorophyll content (2.07 mg mL-1) at various growth stages of maize. This indicates that these slow-release formulations provided a sustained supply of nitrogen, promoting chlorophyll synthesis and enhancing photosynthetic activity. Additionally, the positive correlation between LAI and chlorophyll content in maize plants, led to improved photosynthetic efficiency, biomass accumulation and ultimately higher yields.
Published Version
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