INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF NP FERTILIZERS CAN BOOST THE GROWTH AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF SUNFLOWER (HELIANTHUS ANNUS L.)

Abstract

Nitrogen and phosphorus (NP) are two most important essential nutrients promoting plant growth and yield traits of all crops. NP fertilizers are easy to use and quick in releasing nutrients. A field experiment was conducted at Oilseed section, Agriculture Research Institute, Tandojam to determine the effects of different doses of NP fertilizers on the time of maturity, vegetative growth and yield and yield related traits of sunflower variety HO-1. The six NP fertilizer levels viz. T1 = 0-0 (control), T2 = 80-40, T3 = 100-50, T4 = 150-50, T5 = 120-50 and T6 = 120-75 NP kg ha-1 were set in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). The results revealed that all the parameters of sunflower were significantly affected (P < 0.05) by different NP fertilizer doses. It was observed that maximum 184.25 (cm) plant height, 6.66 (cm) stem girth, 28.19 (cm) head diameter, 1161.92 seeds head-1, 90.33 (g) seed index and 2172.00 (kg ha-1) seed yield was achieved by applying 150-50 NP fertilizer kg ha-1. It was also noted that 150-50 NP kg ha-1 promoted the sunflower crop to mature early by enhancing vegetate growth. The poor performance for all growth, yield and maturity parameters were observed in the treatment where no NP fertilizer was applied (control). It was concluded that growth and seed yield was increased by increasing the application of NP fertilizers up to 150-50 NP kg ha-1 and thus recommended to get better growth and yield performance of sunflower crop in locality