PERFORMANCE OF WHITE MAIZE ON EARTHING UP UNDER VARYING LEVELS OF FERTILIZER APPLICATION

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Sher-e Bangla Agricultural University in Agronomy farm during kharif season, March-June 2021, in order to find out the effect of different levels of earthing up and fertilizer application on the performance of white maize variety. Three levels of earthing up viz., E 0 = no earthing up, E 1 = earthing up at 25 days after sowing, E 2 = earthing up at 25 days after sowing + earthing up at 50 DAS and four levels of fertilizer application viz., F 1 = 50% of recommended dose, F 2 = 75% of recommended dose, F 3 =100% of recommended dose and F 4 =125% of recommended dose were need in this study. The experiment was conducted in split-plot design with three replications. In case of earthing up, the highest plant height (202.92, 223.50 and 215.71 cm), base circumference plant -1 (5.77, 6.92 and 7.67 cm), leaf area index (1.80, 2.52, and 3.54), dry weight plant -1 (42.58, 90.50 and 129.07 g), cob length plant -1 (19.35 cm), cob circumference plant -1 (13.39 cm), grain weight cob (95.38 g), cob weight plant -1 (113.78 g), number of grains cob -1 (375.06), highest 1000 grains weight (156.23 g), grain yield (8.07 t ha -1 ), stover yield (10.09 t ha -1 ), biological yield (18.16 t ha ), harvest index (44.38 %) was observed in the E 2 treatment respectively. In case of fertilizer application, experimental result revealed that the highest plant height (207.00, 228.56 and 215.78), base circumference plant -1 (5.66, 7.17 and 7.56 cm), leaf area index (1.89, 2.52 and 3.76), dry matter weight plant -1 (43.24, 91.50 and 127.74 g), cob length plant -1 (19.65 cm), cob circumference plant -1 (14.17 cm), grain weight cob -1 (105.83 g), cob weight plant (126.08 g), number of grains cob 1 -1 -1 (396.67), weight of 1000 grain weight (160.98 g), grain yield (8.49 t ha ), stover yield (10.33 t ha -1 ), biological yield (18.82 t ha -1 ) and harvest index in this experiment (45.09 %) was observed in F 4 (125%) treatment at 40, 80 DAS and at harvest, respectively . In case of combined effect, the highest data was observed from plant height (210.00, 236.67 and 219.83 cm), leaf area index (1.33, 1.78, and 2.33), dry weight plant

(45.69, 98.83, and 138.52 g) and maximum grain yield (8.98 t ha -1 -1 -1 ) and yield attributes in E 2 treatment at 40, 80 DAS and at harvest, respectively and suitable for grain production as compared to other treatment combination. But the yield of E 1 F 4 and E 2 F 4 did not significantly differ. The treatment E 0 F 1 had the lowest grain yield (5.33 t ha -1 ) along with showing lower values in plant parameters in different growth stages.