Effect of zinc application on growth and yield of baby corn (Zea mays L.) in lateritic soil of West Bengal

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2017-18 at agricultural farm, Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal, to study the “Effect of zinc application on growth, yield and economics of baby corn (Zea mays L.) in lateritic soil of West Bengal”. The experiment was laid out in Factorial RBD having two factors: one with two levels of soil application of ZnSO4; 0 and 25 kg ha-1 and other with four levels of foliar spray of ZnSO4; no foliar spray, 25 DAS, 40 DAS and twice at 25 DAS & 40 DAS. There were eight treatment combinations with each treatment replicated thrice. Soil application of ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 exhibited significantly higher growth attributes (viz. plant height, number of leaves/plant, LAI, dry matter accumulation, crop growth rate) and yield attributes (viz. number of cobs per plant, corn and cob weight, corn and cob length, corn and cob girth and also corn yield, cob yield, husk yield and green fodder yield) of baby corn, than no soil application of ZnSO4. Foliar spray of ZnSO4 applied twice at 25 DAS & 40 DAS gave the highest yield components and yield in baby corn. However, this was statistically at par with foliar spray of ZnSO4 at 40 DAS and 25 DAS. Combined soil application of ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 and foliar spray twice at 25 DAS & 40 DAS interacted significantly and produced higher number of cobs per plant, number of cobs per hectare of baby corn cultivation. This was at par with soil application of ZnSO4 at 25 kg ha-1 and foliar spray at 40 DAS and significantly higher than foliar spray at 25 DAS.