Effect of Different Fertilizer Combinations on Yield Performance of Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Field of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna during the period from December 2006 to March 2007 to examine the impact of applied nutrients on agronomic characters of sunflower. The study was conducted in a Factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Two varieties (Factor A) namely Local Variety and Kirani and six fertilizer treatments (Factor B) T1= N 0 kg ha-1, P 0 kg ha-1, K 0 kg ha-1, Zn 0 kg ha-1, S 0 kg ha-1; T2 = N 140 kg ha-1, P 140 kg ha-1, K 140 kg ha-1, Zn 40 kg ha-1, S 6 kg ha-1; T3 = N 120 kg ha-1, P 120 kg ha-1, K 120 kg ha-1, Zn 35 kg ha-1, S 5 kg ha-1; T4= N 100 kg ha-1, P 100 kg ha-1, K 100 kg ha-1, Zn 30 kg ha-1, S 4 kg ha-1; T5, = N 80 kg ha-1, P 80 kg ha-1, K 80 kg ha-11, Zn 25 kg ha-1, S 3 kg ha-1; T6 =N 80 kg ha-1, P 80 kg ha-1, K 40 kg ha-1, Zn 20 kg ha-1, S 2 kg ha-1 were used in the experiment. Data on yield and different yield contributing characters were collected. Fertilizer treatments showed significant effect on yield and yield contributing characters of sunflower. However, varietal effect was nonsignificant in all cases except plant height and effect of interaction of fertilizer and variety was significant in case of head diameter, number of filled seeds head and seed yield but nonsignificant effect was observed in all other cases. Except plant height, stover yield and harvest index; all other yield parameters were found maximum in the treatment T3. As expected, the control treatment (where no fertilizer was applied) possessed the worst performance for all the characters studied except plant height and harvest index. Numerically Kirani (V2) showed higher performance than local variety (V1) in most cases. Variable effects of variety x fertilizer combinations were observed in the study. Seed yield of sunflower was well correlated to head diameter, stover yield and harvest index.