Abstract:
A pot experiment was conducted in the farm of Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University to study the effect of foliar spray micronutrient (zinc, iron and boron) on some morpho-physiological and biochemical parameters of maize. The experiment was conducted in completely randomized design (CRD), containing three replications with the following treatments: T0 control (not received spray), T1, T2 (Zinc as form ZnSO
4 [0.5%, 1% resp.]), T3, T4 (Fe as form FeSO
4) at 0.5% and 1% respectively. Treatments T5, T6 boron (B as form boric acid) at 0.3% and 0.6% respectively. Treatments were sprayed on plant leaves at the vegetative growth stage 30 DAS and 40 DAS. The experimental results revealed that morpho-physiological parameters like plant height (cm), number of leaves, leaf area (cm
2) as well as total dry matter per plant (g) was significantly increased through application of zinc and iron as compared with the control treatment. The biochemical traits also shown significant increment in chlorophyll content, sugar, starch and protein content (mg g
-1FW) as foliar spray of different micronutrients (Zn, Fe and B) compared with the control treatment. The study revealed that the foliar applications of iron and zinc significantly increases some biochemical characteristics like chlorophyll content and sugar (mg g
-1FW) respectively while starch content shown significant enhancement by effect boron foliar spray as compared to control treatment.