Effect of Nitrogen and Sulphur on growth and yield of Hybrid maize (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops, next to rice and wheat and is used as a food for men and feed for animals. This crop has been developed into a multi-dollar business in countries viz. Thiland, Tiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, Canada and Germany, because of its potential as a value added product for export and a good food substitute (Mugalkhod et al., 2011). Maize is gaining immense importance on account of its potential uses in manufacturing starch, plastics, rayon, adhesive, dye, resins, boot polish etc. and due to this large uses it is rightly called a Miracle crop and also known as ʽQueen of cereals’ due to its high potential yield. In India, maize is grown in an area of 9.43million hectares with production of 24.35 m t and productivity of 2583 kg ha -1 (Government of India, 2014). Maize yield is generally higher in high solar intensities, lower night temperature and lower pest infestation (Adesoji et al, 2013). Optimum plant density leads to better utilization of solar radiation resulting into corn dry matter accumulation and biomass production (Moosari et al., 2012). The production of maize in India is quite low as compared to the countries viz. Thiland, Tiwan, Singapore and USA. The probable reason may be due to nitrogen and sulphur An experiment was conducted at Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, SHUATS, Allahabad, (U.P) during kharif season of 2016. The study was conducted to find out the effect levels of nitrogen and sulphur on growth and yield of hybrid maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment was laid out in RBD having 12 treatments replicated thrice and it consisted of 3 levels of nitrogen viz. 100kg N, 120kg N and 140kg N and 4 levels of sulphur viz. control, 15kg S ha -1 , 30kg S ha -1 and 45kg S ha -1 . The experimental findings record that the maximum plant height (198.67cm), maximum plant dry weight (178.09g), LAI (5.16), length of cobs with and without husk (27.67cm and 20.83cm), respectively. Grain rows cob -1 (16.07) and grains row -1 (30.15), 1000grain weight (238.67g) and grain yield (9717kg ha -1 ) were recorded in treatment T11(140 kg N ha -1 + 30 kg S ha -1 ) followed by treatment T7 (120kgNha 1 + 30 kg S ha -1 ) and it was concluded that nitrogen and sulphur significantly influenced the growth parameters and yield of hybrid maize and higher level of sulphur i.e. 45kg/ha increased the cost of cultivation and also had antagonistic effect on yield attributes of maize. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 6 (2017) pp. 1930-1935 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com