Abstract:
The field experiment was conducted at agricultural farm of Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, Birbhum district, West Bengal, India during
pre-rabi season of 2015 to study the effect of zinc on growth and productivity of baby corn. Different treatments viz. absolute control, soil application of Zn @ 6 kg ha
-1, soil application of Zn @ 10 kg ha
-1, seed treatment @ 0.6% Zn and @ 1.2% Zn, one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS, soil application of Zn @ 6 kg ha
-1 +one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn, seed treatment @ 0.6% Zn+one foliar spray of 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS. The experiment was carried out in RBD with 8 treatments replicated thrice. At tasseling stage, tallest (136.6 cm) plant produced by seed treatment @ 0.6% Zn+one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS and highest (45.26 g plant
-1) dry matter accumulation resulted with soil application of Zn @ 6 kg ha
-1+one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS. In regards to the yield, soil application of Zn @ 6 kg ha
-1+one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS resulted maximum count (246667) of cobs ha
-1, highest (8.06 t ha
-1) young cob yield ha
-1, highest (1.72 t ha
-1) fresh weight of corn ha
-1 and maximum (20.42 t ha
-1) total fodder yield. Moreover, highest net return (₹165442 ha
-1), B:C ratio, maximum Zn content in baby corn, green husk as well as total Zn uptake were found with the soil application of Zn @ 6 kg ha
-1+one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS. Where as one foliar spray @ 0.05% Zn at 25 DAS showed highest zinc use efficiency.