Productivity of rice as influenced by soil and foliar application of silicon

Abstract

A field experiment was undertaken to study the effect of soil and foliar application of silicon on crop growth and yield of rice at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Sirsi, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during Kharif 2018-19 and 2019-20. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications and nine treatments. The pooled results concluded that, significantly higher dry matter production (97.76 g hill), number of grains per panicles (121.33), test weight (23.64 g), grain yield (5750 kg ha-1) and straw yield (6960 kg ha-1) of rice was recorded with soil application of silicon @ 200 kg ha-1 along with foliar application of silicon @ 0.5 per cent (T9). However, treatments T8 and T7 were on par with T9. Whereas, lower dry matter production (87.84 g hill-1), number of grains per panicles (97.67), test weight (19.49 g), grain yield (4581 kg ha-1) and straw yield (5621 kg ha-1) was observed in the control (T1). The yield increase to an the extent of 25.51 and 23.82 per cent, respectively over control.