EVALUATION OF NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY (NUE) PARAMETERS FOR NITROGEN AND ZINC FERTILIZERS ON WHEAT PLANT IN ASSIUT GOVERNORATE, EGYPT.

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted to evaluate the use efficiency ofnitrogen and zinc on growth and yield parameters of wheat plant. Thiswork was carried out in clayey textured soil at Show village, Abnobdistrict, Assiut Governorate, during the year, 2011-2012 season. Arandomized complete block design experiment with three replicateswas carried out using wheat (Var.Sids 8) as plant indicator. Theexperiment included 25 treatments i.e., five nitrogen application rates(0, 50, 75, 100 and 125 kg N fed-1) as urea which was in two equaldoses(after 25 and 40 days of sowing) at the time of irrigation. Also,five zinc application rates (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 kg Zn fed-1) as ZnSO4 bybroadcasting in powder form mixed with the soil at seedbedpreparation.Application of N at rates of 50, 75, 100 and 125 mg kg-1 resultedin percentage increases in yield of grains equivalent to 258, 223, 212and 263 %, respectively as compared with the corresponding values ofthe control plants (0.0 level N). In case of straw, the correspondingincreases were 227, 252, 250 and 199 %, respectively. The results showthat application of Zn up to 10 mg kg-1 soil has a positive effect ongrain yield of wheat. Addition of 5 and 10 mg Zn kg-1 soil causedsignificant (0.05) increases in yield; the increases were 51 and 26 %,respectively over the control treatments.Concerning the interaction between nitrogen and zinc application,data showed that the 1000 grain weight values increased by usingdifferent levels of N and Zn compared with the control, where the 50 kgN fed-1 with 10 kg Zn fed-1 caused significant increases in the yield andthe best treatment of the 1000 grain weight grams. On the other side,increasing Zn application over 10 kg fed-1 caused pronounced andsignificant decreases in weight yield. The interaction effect of N andZn treatment on grains and straw attained its highest values conceded,with of 125 kg N and 5 kg Zn fed-1 and 75 kg N fed-1 + 5 kg Zn fed-1,respectively. The results showed that the rate of 50 kg N/fed, gave thebest Physiological efficiency (PE) compared with other treatments (i.e.,75, 100 and 125 kg N/fed). While, the values were increased as theapplication rates of Zn increased (i.e. 5 and 10 kg zinc/fed), and thendecreased with increasing Zn application (i.e. 15 and 20 kg Zn /fed).The best physiological efficiency (PE) accompanied with the rate of 10kg zinc/fed.