Effect of cow urine application at varying fertility and zinc levels on growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under irrigated condition of Varanasi

Abstract

The field experiment was carried out in two consecutive years of 2016-17 and 2017-18 at the Agricultural Research Farm, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.) to assess the effect of cow urine application at varying fertility and zinc levels on growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under irrigated condition of Varanasi. Results showed that application of the fertilizer at 100% RDF (F1) recorded significantly higher growth parameters viz. plant height, number of tiller m-1 row length; yield attributes viz. number of effective tiller m-2, spike length, grains spike-1 and test weight as well as grain and straw yield than 75% RDF (F2) during both the years. Among the zinc levels, zinc applied at 10 kg ha-1 though remained comparable to 5 kg Zn ha-1, recorded significantly higher values of these parameters over control. Cow urine @ 12000 l ha-1 equally distributed at sowing, CRI and spike emergence stages (U2) gave higher values of plant height, number of tiller m-1 row length, spike length, number of grain spike-1 and grain and straw yield which being at par with U1 (8000 l cow urine ha-1 equally distributed at sowing and CRI), both recorded significantly higher values than control. However, with respect to effective tillers m-2, significant increase was noticed with each increment of cow urine level, recording maximum at 12000 l cow urine ha-1 during both the years