PJB-2020-230
Bio-stimulation and yield responsiveness in maize
Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Arslan Akhtar, Muhammad Yaseen, Muhammad Amir Maqbool, Waseem Akbar and Javeria Ramzan
Abstract
Since green revolution, synthetic fertilizers have been used extensively to enhance the crop productivity which posed harmful effects in various ecosystems. It is therefore needed to substitute or supplement the application of synthetic nutrients with organic ones for sustainable agricultural productivity. More recently, there is an increasing interest to organic bio-stimulants and if they are combined with synthetic nutrients, they have been reported to increase the crop productivity. Current investigation was planned to evaluate responsiveness of eleven commercial hybrids of maize against different combinations of a bio-stimulant (Plant ProtectorTM) and synthetic fertilizer. Application of bio-stimulant increased plant biomass and chlorophyll contents, and reduced leaf temperature of the plants making them able to withstand high atmospheric temperratures. Treatment of bio-stimulant combined with 50% of prescribed synthetic fertilizer at 7 leaf stage showed 73.53% and 68.58% increase in the yield as compared to control and recommended fertilizer dose, respectively. Treatments, genotypes and their interactions contributed 35.97%, 26.23% and 27.79% of total variation for cob yield, respectively. Among the studied genotypes, FH-963, FH-985 and FH-988 were highest yielding. Results suggested that maize hybrids were highly responsive to nutrients at 7-leaf stage. It is recommended that for highest yield, dose of synthetic fertilizer could be reduced to half and supplemented with bio-stimulant at 7-leaf stage
To Cite this article:
Aslam, M., M.A. Akhtar, M. Yaseen, M.A. Maqbool, W. Akbar and J. Ramzan. 2022. Bio-stimulation and yield responsiveness in maize. Pak. J. Bot., 54(2): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2022-2(30)
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