Effect of micronutrients (Zn, B and Mo) foliar application at different growth stages of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) on yield and yield components

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted during 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons, at Agricultural Experiment and Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt, to study the effects of zinc (Zn), Boron (B) and molybdenum (Mo) in combination at three growth stages; V3: vegetative stage (30 DAS), R1: stage of flowering (45 DAS) and R6: pod formation (60 DAS) on yield and yield components of chickpea cultivar (Giza 531). The treatments of micronutrients foliar application were T1 (application with water), T2 (Zn 0.5 g/L + B 0.5 g/L), T3 (Zn 0.5 g/L + Mo 0.5 g/L), T4(B 0.5 g/L + Mo 0.5 g/L), T5( Zn 0.5 g/L + B 0.5 g/L + Mo 0.5 g/L). A split plot design in randomized complete blocks arrangement with three replications was used. Foliar application treatments were randomly assigned for the main plots while, times of foliar application were randomly arranged for the sub plots. Spraying treatments had a significant effect on yield and its components in both seasons. The T5 treatment (Zn + B + Mo) produced significantly the highest plant height (72.2 and 74.2 cm), number branches plant-1(4.30 and 4.37), number of pods plant-1 (70.4 and 70.8), 100-seed weight (26.6 and 28.6 g), seed yield plant-1 (15.6 and 16.9 g), seed yield feddan-1 (702 and 727 kg), straw yield feddan-1 (2275 and 2276 kg),biological yield feddan-1 (2977 and 2999 kg), harvest index (23.6 and 24.1%) and seed protein content (19.7 and 19.9%), respectively, in both seasons. However, the lowest value of all studied traits was recorded from T1 treatment (control).The results indicated that the spraying time of micronutrients did not have a significant effect on all studied traits in both seasons. The interaction between micronutrients foliar application and times of application was significant for all characters under study in both seasons. The highest seed yield (705 and 732 kg feddan-1 ) in both seasons, respectively was recorded by combined application of zinc (0.5 g/l) + Boron (0.5 g/l) + molybdenum (0.5 g/l) as foliar spray at start of flowering stage (R1) compared with other tested treatments. It was concluded that combined application of zinc, boron and molybdenum significantly produced greater crop yields. These results suggested that combined application of zinc @ 0.5 g/l, boron @ 0.5 g/l and molybdenum @ 0.5 g /l as foliar spray at 45 DAS (R1 growth stage: start of flowering) significantly enhanced the crop yields and protein content in seed of chickpea.