INFLUENCE OF PHOSPHORUS FERTILIZATION ON DIFFERENT HYBRID MAIZE VARIETIES

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the central research farm of Bangladesh Agricukural Research Institute, Gazipur during the period from November 2008 to April 2009 to investigate the effect of different levels of phosphorus application on growth, yield attributes and yield of hybrid maize. The soil belongs to the Chhiata soil series under AEZ-28 (Madhupur Tract). The soil is clay loam having pH 6.20, organic carbon 0.99%, total nitrogen 0.052%, available phosphorus 13.1 ppm, exchangeable potassium 0.39 me/100 g soil and available sulphur 8.51 ppm. The experiment comprised four hybrid maize varieties viz., BARI hybrid maize-i. BARI hybrid maize-3. BARI hybrid maize-5 and BARI hybrid maize-7 and four levels of phosphorus viz. 0, 30. 60 and 90 kg ha' along with a blanket dose of N 250K,00S40Mg,0 7,n 5 B 2 kg hi1 and cowdung 5 t hi'. Phosphorus was used as triple super phosphate. The experiment was laid out in two factors randomized complete block design with three replications. Phosphorus significantly increased morphological, yield attributes and grain yield of maize up to 60 kg P hi' and at the highest level of application, yield was declined. The highest grain yield (7.62 t hi') was observed at 60 kg P hi' treatment. Phosphorus increased the grain yield by 2 1.7-54.3% over the control. BARI hybrid maize-7 showed the highest grain yield (6.81 t hi'). !-lowever, from regression analysis, the optimum dose of phosphorus was found to be 73, 86, 70 and 78 kg hi' for BARI hybrid maize-2, BARI hybrid maize- 3, BARI hybrid maize-5 and BARI hybrid maize-7, respectively for maximizing the yield of maize. The P uptake increased with increasing rate of P application in all the four tested varieties. Phosphorus showed a positive balance in all treatments in the study area for hybrid maize production. Considering the economic returns, phosphorus P. 60 kg hi' kg hi' and cowdung 5 t hi' appeared to be the best-suited dose which may be recommended for maximizing the yield of hybrid maize in the AEZ-28.