Effect of levels of zinc and spacing on growth and yield of baby corn (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during Zaid 2020 at Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P). The soil of experimental plot was sandy loam in texture, nearly neutral in soil reaction (pH 7.1), low in organic carbon (0.36%), available N (171.48 kg/ha), available P (15.2 kg/ha) and available K (232.5 kg/ha). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with nine treatments each replicated thrice on the basis of one year experimentation. The treatments which are 15 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 40 cm x 20 cm, 20 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 40 cm x 20 cm, 25 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 40 cm x 20 cm, 15kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 50 cm x 20 cm, 20 kg/ha ZnSO 4 +50 cm x 20 cm, 25 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 50 cm x 20 cm , 15kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 60 cm x 20 cm , 20 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 60 cm x 20 cm , 25 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 60 cm x 20 cm used. The results showed that application of 25 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 60 cm x 20 cm was recorded significantly higher plant height (168.13 cm), number of leaves/plant (13.25), dry weight/plant (90.96 g/plant), no. of cobs/plant (2.37), length of the cob/plant (18.77 cm), cob weight with husk (47.92 g), cob weight without husk (22.70 g) whereas maximum crop growth rate (30.45 g/m 2 /day) was recorded with treatment 20 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 40 cm x 20 cm and cob yield with husk (14.63 t/ha), cob yield without husk (5.09 t/ha) and green fodder yield (28.83 t/ha) was recorded maximum with 25 kg/ha ZnSO 4 + 40 cm x 20 cm.