Could maneuvering the methods of zinc and boron application influences yield and agro-morphological traits of brinjal in inceptisols?

Abstract

Brinjal is one of the widely grown vegetable with high nutritive value responsive to applied Zn and B in deficient soils. With this background, a pot experiment was conducted at College of Horticulture Farm to study the effect of FYM, zinc and boron on yield and agro-morphological characters of brinjal where two levels of FYM (0 and 5 t ha -1 ), four levels of Zn (Zn0: No Zn, Zn1: 5.0 kg Zn ha -1 as basal, Zn2: 10.0 kg Zn ha -1 as basal and Zn3: 5.0 kg Zn ha -1 as basal + Foliar spray of Zn twice @ 0.5% ZnSO4.7H2O solution) and three levels of B (B0: No B, B1: 1kg B ha -1 and B2: 2 kg B ha -1 ) were applied in factorial completely randomized design. The application of Zn and B significantly influenced the fruit yield and other agro-morphological parameters viz., number of fruits per plant, plant height, fruit diameter and fruit length of brinjal. The highest increase was found with the conjoint application of soil + foliar application of Zn and highest dose of B i.e. 2.0 kg B ha -1 along with FYM. On average, fruit yield of brinjal varied between 0.92 to 1.31 kg pot -1 with a mean value of 1.12 kg pot -1 . Zinc application @ 10.0 kg ha -1 through basal (Zn2) as well as soil + foliar application of Zn (Zn3) significantly enhanced the fruit yield of brinjal over the application of 5.0 kg Zn ha -1 as well as over the control. Application of Zn fertilizers along with FYM enhanced the brinjal fruit yield to the extent of 10-24% over the control under different treatment combinations of Zn (either soil application or through soil plus foliar application), whereas, application of B increased the fruit yield to the tune of 12 to 17% compared to no B application. The interaction between FYM and Zn and well as between FYM and B had also shown significant positive effect towards fruit yield of brinjal.

Role of Micronutrients in Providing Abiotic Stress Tolerance

“…The growth of brinjal in the soil possesses low levels of Zn and B and can be improved when supplemented with farm yard manure; Zn and B at different combinations successfully promoted the fruit yield and improved other agro-morphological parameters. Furthermore, application of only B proved beneficial for brinjal plant health (Saha et al 2020). However, different crops respond differently to boron fertilization.…”