Abstract:
An experiment was conducted in pot house of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural
University, Dhaka during November 2021 to March 2022 to evaluate the effect of
foliar application of Zn and Mn on the growth, yield contributing characters and
yield of BARI Sunflower 2 under saline stress conditions. The experiment
consisted of two factors as factor A; S
0
= Control, S
1
= 10 ds/m NaCl and S
2
= 20
ds/m NaCl; factor B; T
0
= water spray, T
1
= 0.5% Zn spray, T
2
= 0.5% Mn spray
and T
3
= 0.5% Zn spray + 0.5% Mn spray. The experiment was laid out in a
Randomized Completely Block Design with three replications. Different growth
and yield contributing traits, viz. plant height (cm), number of leaf, head diameter
(cm), head weight (g), number of seed head
-1
1
) were studied. Treatment S
0
, 1000 seed weight (g) and yield (t ha
(Control) produced the tallest plants at 30, 45 and
60 DAS (36.87, 49.50 and 85.33 cm) compared to other two levels of salinity. The
treatment S
2
(20 ds m
-1
NaCl) produced the shortest plant at 30, 45 and 60 DAS
(31.67, 44.70 and 74.33 cm). The reproductive growth in the sunflower was higher
for Zn and Mn spray rather water spray. The lowest yield (1.53 t ha
) was
recorded in T
0
treatment. In treatment combination of zero saline and 0.5% Zn
spray + 0.5% Mn spray (S
0
T
3
) gave highest yield (2.93 t ha
), which was
significantly higher than 20 ds/m NaCl and water spray (S
2
T
0
-1
) (1.20 t ha
). Higher
salinity level leads to the reduction of plant vegetative growth whereas, foliar
spray of Zn and Mn compensate this trend significantly. The results indicated that
foliar application of Zn and Mn was significantly improved the yield contributing
parameters despite the effect of different level of salinity.
Description:
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka,
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
AGRONOMY
