Agronomic bio-fortification with zinc on growth and yield of babycorn under irrigated condition

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Department of Agronomy Farm, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to study the effect of agronomic bio-fortification with zinc on growth and yield of babycorn under irrigated condition. The treatments comprised of T1: No zinc (control), T2: ZnSO4 at 25 kg/ha as soil application, T3: ZnSO4 at 37.5 kg/ha as soil application, T4: Foliar spray of ZnSO4 at 0.5% on 20 and 40 DAS, T5: Foliar spray of ZnSO4 at 1.0% on 20 and 40 DAS, T6: T2 + T4, T7: T2 + T5, T8: T3 + T4, T9: T3 + T5. The result of this experiment showed that combined application of zinc sulphate at 37.5 kg/ha with 0.5% foliar spray at 20 and 40 DAS recorded significantly higher plant height (211.6 cm), drymatter production (12758 kg/ha), chlorophyll SPAD value (53.56), took lesser number of days to tasseling (47.88 days) and cob initiation (48.73 days), green cob yield (18637 kg/ha) and green fodder yield (31592 kg/ha) compared to other treatments. However, it was statically on par with combined soil application of zinc sulphate (25 kg/ha or 37.5 kg/ha) with foliar spray (0.5% or 1.0%) at 20 and 40 DAS (T9, T7 and T6).