Soil Applied Zinc Fertilizer Enhanced Yield and Yield Components of Wheat

Zinc (Zn) deficiency significantly affects the yield and quality of crops across vast areas of cultivable land globally, given the essential role of micronutrients in plant metabolic processes. A field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory (AFL), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh, from November 2019 to March 2020 to evaluate the effects of zinc and its application methods on the yield components of different wheat varieties. The experiment included three wheat varieties: BARI Gom-30, BARI Gom-31, and BARI Gom-32. It also examined six levels of Zn: 0 kg ha-1, seed soaking (SS) with 0.57% ZnSo4.7H2O (aq), SS with 1% ZnSo4.7H2O (aq), soil application (SA) of 4 kg ha-1 Zn, SA of 8 kg ha-1 Zn, and foliar spray (FS) of 0.5% ZnSo4 at 25 and 50 days after sowing. The experiment was designed as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The highest plant height (PH) (99.66 cm), the number of total tillers (NTT) plant-1 (4.86), spike length (SL) (10.41 cm), the number of effective tillers (NET) plant-1 (4.00), the number of grains spike-1 (NGS) (43.53), 1000-grain weight (TGW) (51.47 g), grain yield (GY) (4.12 t ha-1), straw yield (SY) (5.27 t ha-1), biological yield (BY) (9.39 t ha-1), and harvest index (HI) (43.93%) were achieved in BARI Gom-32 with the application of 8 kg Zn ha-1. The findings indicate that the wheat variety BARI Gom-32 attained its maximum yield with the application of 8 kg Zn ha-1. However, further experiments in different locations are necessary before making final recommendations.