Evaluation of different methods of Zinc application on growth and yield of hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) in inceptisol of Varanasi

Abstract

A pot experiment was conduct to assess the effect of various methods of Zn application on growth and yield of hybrid rice. Treatments consist of; without fertilizer, RDF (NPK), Zn-soil application, ZnO- root dipping, Zn-foliar application, soil + root dipping, soil+ foliar, root dipping+ foliar, soil + root dipping +foliar. Results showed that the Zn application by different methods significantly increased plant height, number of tiller, chlorophyll content, number of panicle, length of panicle, grain panicle-1, straw yield, grain yield and 1000 grains weight. Maximum grain yield of rice was recorded in T9 (SA+RD+FS) in which conjoint application of Zn was made following all the methods of Zn application. This treatment (T9) also had the highest DTPA-extractable Zn content (1.18 mg kg-1) in post-harvest soil.