Research Article

Evaluating the Effect of Zinc Application Methods on Growth and Yield of Wheat Cultivars

Muhammad Ilyas1,2*, Imran Khan2*, Muhammad Umer Chattha2, Muhammad Umair Hassan2, Muhammad Zain3, Wajid Farhad4, Sana Ullah1, Ateeq Shah5, Safeer Ahmed6, Bismillah Khan1 and Muhammad Adeel1

1University College of Dera Murad Jamali Naseerabad (LUAWMS)-80700, Pakistan; 2Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan; 3Key Laboratory of Crop Water Use and Regulation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Science (CAAS), Xinxiang, Henan 453003, PR China; 4Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences-90150, Pakistan; 5Department of Plant Science, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada; 6Department of Horticulture, Balochistan Agriculture College Quetta-87100, Pakistan.

Received | October 20, 2020; Accepted | November 10, 2020; Published | December 11, 2020

*Correspondence | Muhammad Ilyas and Imran Khan; Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan; Email: Correspondence: drimran@uaf.edu.pk; muhammadilyasbadini@gmail.com

Citation | Ilyas, M., Khan, I., Chattha, M.U., Hassan, M.U., Zain, M., Farhad, W., Ullah, S., Shah, A., Ahmed, S., Khan, B. and Adeel, M., 2020. Evaluating the effect of zinc application methods on growth and yield of wheat cultivars. Journal of Innovative Sciences, 6(2): 150-156.

DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.jis/2020/6.2.150.156

Keywords | Application methods, Cultivars, Growth, Yield, Zinc

1. Introduction

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the world’s most imperative cereal crop and it is the most cultivated crop in Pakistan followed by sugarcane, rice, and cotton (GoP, 2020), and it as an important source of food and calories (Chattha et al., 2017a; Zain et al., 2017; Chatta et al., 2018). The area under wheat cultivation in Pakistan is estimated at around 8825 hectares with a production of 24.34 million tonnes (GoP, 2020). Being the staple and highly consumed food, a large area is devoted to wheat cultivation and it is estimated that around 65% of the total cultivated area is being used for wheat cultivation. More than 80% of farmers in Pakistan cultivate the wheat crop and it has a contribution of 1.7% in national GDP (GoP, 2020).

The availability of micronutrients is considered an important factor to obtain better crop yield (Arshadullah et al., 2002). For both plant growth and human development, Zn is an essential nutrient (Brown et al., 2001). Zinc plays an imperious role in pollen viability, dry matter production (Cakmak, 2008) and stress tolerance (Hassan et al., 2020). Zinc is also part of structural makeup or regulatory co-factor for many enzymes involved in several essential biochemical pathways such as protein synthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, auxin regulation and genes expression (Mattiello et al., 2015).

Zinc deficiency occurs in almost all countries, and it is more prominent in cereal growing areas (Cakmak, 2008). In plants, Zn requirement varies with plant species and genetic characteristics, so the timing, concentration and application methods are very critical in Zn acquisition and efficiency (Chattha et al., 2017b; Hassan et al., 2019). In addition, certain factors may affect Zn availability and efficiency; for example, Zn is more available in low-pH soils and its availability reduces with increasing pH. Moreover, low soil temperature and OM (organic matter) content also contributes to Zn deficiency (Singh et al., 2005). Over 40% of wheat crop is cultivated in low Zn soils, which in turns produced low yield with poor grain quality (Alloway, 2008). In crops, deficiency of Zn results in many yield and nutritional losses. Besides crop production and food quality, Zn supplementation has a considerable position in human health and diet. It is involved in a wide range of human body functions including growth (cell division, height and bone development), fertility, taste, vision and immune system, and its deficiency leads to acute health problems and disorders such as dwarfism, dermatitis, decreased immunity, loss of appetite and certain infections, and in intense conditions death may occur (Das and Green, 2013). Over 30% of world’s population suffering from Zn shortage and Zn deficiency is considered as a serious health and nutritional issue in worldwide (Alloway, 2004; Gunes et al., 2007). Increasing the value of staple grains with Zn is considered to be a good economic strategy to combat Zn deficiency (Bouis et al., 2011). Therefore, based on the above given discussion, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of Zn application on growth and yield of various wheat cultivars.

 

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Experimental site

The proposed study was conducted during 2014-15 at Agronomic Research Farm of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The metrological data for crop growing season in 2014-2015 are given in (Table 1). The samples from different parts of field were taken and homogenised and analysed to measure soil physio-chemical properties by adapting the standard procedures of Homer and Pratt (1961). The soil was sandy loamy and had organic matter 0.82%, pH 7.8, electrical conductivity (EC) 1.92 dS m-1, available nitrogen 0.014 %, phosphorus 4.1 (mg/kg), potassium 120 (mg/kg) and Zn contents were 39 (mg/kg).

 

Table 1: Metrological figures for crop growth period in 2014-2015.

Months	Monthly average temp. (°C)	Mean humidity (%)	Total precipitation (mm)
Dec -2014	10.5	66.14	00.0
Jan -2015	12.02	84.14	1.17
Feb – 2015	16.5	65.28	5.25
Mar – 2015	19.5	69.28	3.3
April – 2015	27.0	62.71	4.62

 

2.2 Treatments

The experiment was performed in RCBD with a factorial arrangement having three replicates. The experiment consisted of three wheat cultivars, V1= Galaxy-2014, V2= Punjab-2011, V3= Millat-2011 and five Zn application methods: T0 (control), T1 (foliar application at the rate of 0.5% Zn solution), T2 (soil application at the rate of 40 kg ZnSO4.H2O ha-1 at first irrigation.), T3 (seed Priming at the rate of 0.4% Zn solution), T4 (seed priming at 0.4% Zn solution + soil application at the rate of 40 kg ZnSO4.H2O ha-1 at first irrigation + foliar application at the rate of 0.5% Zn solution). For priming, the seeds were soaked in Zn solution to maintain a seed solution ratio of 1:10 (w/v) for 12 h. After priming seeds were washed three times and dried by forced air near the original moisture level and then primed seeds were stored in a refrigerator at 7 ± 1 oC till use. The untreated seeds were also kept under similar conditions. Foliar application (0.5% Zn solution) was applied at the booting and milky stage.

2.3 Crop husbandry

The soil was cultivated twice with a cultivator and planked to prepare the seedbed and sowing was done using the hand drill on 15th December 2014 at 23 cm apart rows with a seed rate of 120 kg ha-1. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were given to crop at the rate of 100, 65, 65 kg ha-1. The full quantity of P and K and one-third of N was applied at sowing and the remaining N was applied in 2 splits. A knapsack spray with a flat fan nozzle was used for foliar application. The rest of the agronomic practices remained uniform and followed the general recommendations for the wheat crop.

2.4 Field measurements and statistical analysis

Wheat plants from 50 cm × 50 cm area were harvested fortnightly to measure the leaf area and dry matter accumulation. Furthermore, crop growth rate and leaf area index was calculated by the procedure of Hunt (1978). The data on plant height, productive tillers, non-productive tillers, 1000 grain weight, grain and biological yield were recorded using standard methods. The complete plots were harvested to determine biological yield and threshed manually to determine the grain yield. The data on collected traits were analyzed by analysis of variance technique and difference amid the treatment was compared using LSD test at 0.05% probability level (Steel et al., 1997).

 

3. Results and Discussion

The combined Zn application; T4 (seed priming + soil application + foliar spray) showed maximum improvement in growth parameters as compared to T1 (foliar spray), T2 (soil application), T3 (seed priming) and T0 (control). However, in the case of cultivars, V1 (Galaxy-2014) performed well as compare to (Punjab-2011) and (Millat-2011) cultivar. The maximum leaf area index (LAI) was observed in combined Zn application as compared to alone Zn application either as foliar spray, soil application or seed priming, however, least LAI was noted in T0 (control) (Figure 1). The maximum LAI in wheat varieties was noted in V1 (Galaxy-2014) than V3 (Millat-2011) and V2 (Punjab -2011) as shown in (Figure 1). Similar results were observed for crop growth rate (CGR) (Figure 1d, e, f) and maximum CGR was recorded in T4 (combine application of Zn) while minimum crop growth was observed in T0 (control). Zn is considered to be involved in the regulation of auxin which improves the root growth and resulted in better nutrient and water uptake which consequently improved the plant growth traits and final yield. These findings are supported by previous findings of Zhoori et al. (2009) they also stated that Zn application improves the LAI.

Various Zn application methods had a significant impact on the plant height of wheat (Table 2). The maximal plant height (91.79 cm) was observed in T4 (combine application of Zn) followed by T2 (soil application), T1 (foliar spray) and T3 (seed priming) however, minimum plant height (84.10 cm) was recorded in T0 (control). In the case of wheat varieties, V3 (Millat-2011) had maximum plant height (89.13 cm) followed by V2 (Punjab-2011) and V1 (Galaxy-2014) achieved a minimum plant height (84.60 cm). The increase in plant height by Zn maybe because of better photosynthetic activities which lead to the production of more assimilates and thus resulted in the production of taller plants (Khan et al., 2009).

The application of Zn significantly affected yield traits of wheat cultivars. Maximal productive tillers (302.33) were observed in T4 (seed priming + soil application + foliar spray) followed by T2 (soil application) and T1 (foliar spray) with 289 and 282 tillers, respectively. However, minimum productive tillers (261.89) were recorded in T0 (control treatment). Furthermore, in wheat cultivars, V1 (Galaxy-2014) produced maximum tillers (293.53) followed by V3 (Millat-2011) and V2 (Punjab-2011) (Table 2). The results regarding non-productive tillers were opposite to productive tillers as T0 (control treatment) produced the highest non-productive tillers (18.78), however, T4 (combine Zn application) produced the least number of non-productive tillers (15.11) than others Zn application methods. Among different cultivars, V1 (Galaxy-2014) produced lowest number of non-productive tillers. These findings are in consistent with the outcomes of Maqsood et al. (2009), they also noticed a substantial increase in the productive tillers owing to the increase in activities of enzymes by Zn application.

Treatment T4 (seed priming + soil application + foliar spray) produced maximum spike length (8.62 cm), spikelets/spike (16.66), grains/spike (39.18), and

 

 

thousand grain weight (40.27 g) as compared to T0 (control treatment). These findings are linked with the Cakmak et al. (2001) they stated that Zn application through various techniques such as soil application, foliar spray and seed priming considerably improved the yield-related parameters. Galaxy-2014 produced maximal spike length (8.50 cm), spikelets/spike (16.43), grains/spike (37.98), and thousand grain weight (39.76 g). There was no significant difference in spike length and spikelets per spike of (Punjab-2011) cultivar and (Millat-2011) cultivar. These findings are similar to previous studies of Soleimani (2006) they also noted an increase in yield components of wheat with Zn application.

For grain yield and biological yield, there was a significant difference among various Zn application methods. The maximum grain yield (5.12 t/ha) and biological yield (11.42 t/ha) were achieved under T4 (combine application of Zn), while, lowest grain yield (4.35 t/ha) and biological yield (10.55 t/ha) were obtained under T0 (control treatment). Among cultivars, Galaxy-2014 produced more grain yield and biological yield than V2 (Punjab-2011) and V3 (Millat-2011). The present increase in grain and biological yield can be due to an increase in the yield contributing traits. These outcomes are the same as the findings of Fageria et al. (2009) and Chattha et al. (2017c) they suggested that Zn application increased the yield contributing characters, and resultantly leads to an increase in grain and biological yield. Likewise, the highest harvest index (44.83%) was recorded in T4

 

Table 2: The impact of different methods of Zn application, on plant height, productive and non-productive tillers, spike length and spikelets/spike of wheat cultivars.

Treatments	Plant height (cm)	Productive tillers	Non-productive tillers	Spike length (cm)	Spikelets per spike
T0	84.10 D	261.89 E	18.78 A	7.74 B	15.11 B
T1	87.19 BC	282.00 C	17.22 BC	8.29 AB	15.62 B
T2	88.41 B	289.00 B	16.11 CD	8.06 AB	15.86 AB
T3	85.96 CD	275.22 D	17.56 B	8.18 AB	15.78 AB
T4	91.79 A	302.33 A	15.11 D	8.62 A	16.66 A
LSD (p ≤ 0.05)	2.27	5.71	1.21	0.58	0.89
V1 (Galaxy-2014)	84.60 B	293.53 A	15.13 B	8.50 A	16.43 A
V2 (Punjab-2011)	88.76 A	270.13 C	18.06 A	8.24 AB	15.58 B
V3 (Millat-2011)	89.13 A	282.60 B	17.67 A	7.80 B	15.41 B
LSD (p ≤ 0.05)	1.75	4.42	0.93	0.45	0.69
Interaction = Treatments × Cultivars	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS

T0 (control), T1 (foliar spray at rate of 0.5% Zinc solution), T2 (soil application at rate of 40 kg ZnSO4.H2O ha-1 at first irrigation.), T3 (seed priming at rate of 0.4% Zinc solution), T4 (seed priming at rate of 0.4% Zinc solution + soil application at rate of 40 kg ZnSO4.H2O ha-1 at first irrigation + foliar spray at 0.5% Zn solution). The common letters in a column do not vary significantly at 5% probability level.

 

Table 3: The outcome of various techniques of zinc application on grains per spike, 1000 grain weight (g), biological yield (t/ha) and harvest index of different wheat cultivars.

Treatments	Grains per spike	1000-grain weight	Biological yield (t/ha)	Grain yield (t/ha)	Harvest index
T0	32.76 D	36.99 D	10.55 A	4.35 B	41.23 B
T1	36.51 B	38.27 C	10.92 A	4.82 AB	44.14 A
T2	37.08 B	39.21 B	10.60 A	4.51 AB	42.55 AB
T3	34.78 C	37.80 C	10.90 A	4.63 AB	42.48 AB
T4	39.18 A	40.27 A	11.42 A	5.12 A	44.83 A
LSD (p ≤ 0.05)	1.45	0.78	0.96	0.67	2.90
V1 (Galaxy-2014)	37.98 A	39.76 A	10.94 A	4.73 A	43.24 A
V2 (Punjab-2011)	35.79 B	37. 50 C	10.90 A	4.72 A	43.30 A
V3 (Millat-2011)	34.41 C	38.26 B	10.79 A	4.60 A	42.63 A
LSD (p ≤ 0.05)	1.12	0.60	0.74	0.52	2.24
Interaction = Treatments × Cultivars	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS

T0 (control), T1 (foliar spray at rate of 0.5% Zinc solution), T2 (soil application at rate of 40 kg ZnSO4.H2O ha-1 at first irrigation.), T3 (seed priming at rate of 0.4% Zinc solution), T4 (seed priming at rate of 0.4% Zinc solution + soil application at rate of 40 kg ZnSO4.H2O ha-1 at first irrigation + foliar spray at 0.5% Zn solution). The common letters in a column do not vary significantly at 5% probability level.

 

(combine application of Zn) while, the least harvest index (41.23%) was noted in T0 (control treatment) as shown in (Table 3). The rise in harvest index maybe because of the combined effect of an increase in yield related parameters and biological yield of wheat crop (Tabatabai et al., 2015).

 

Conclusions and Recommendations

The various Zn application significantly affected the growth and productivity of the wheat crop. The foliar spray, soil application, and seed priming applied together significantly enhanced the yield traits and yield of wheat crop. Among cultivars, Galaxy-2014 showed significantly higher values for different growth and yield-related parameters and produced maximum yield than Punjab-2011 and Millat-2011.

 

Novelty Statement

Zinc deficiency is continuously soaring up in the wheat growing areas especially in semi-arid areas. However, the effects of different methods of zinc application on wheat crop are not fully explored. Therefore, in this study we compared the effects of different methods of Zn application on the performance of wheat genotypes in order to determine the best method of zinc application for wheat crop in semi-arid area.

 

Author’s Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiment: Imran Khan and Muhammad Umer Chattha. Performed the experiment: Muhammad Ilyas, Data collection: Muhammad Ilyas and Muhammad Zain, Analyzed the data: Muhammad Ilyas and Wajid Farhad, writing original draft: Muhammad Ilyas, Imran Khan, and Muhammad Umer Chattha, Reviewing and Editing: Muhammad Umair Hassan, Ateeq Shah, Sana Ullah, Safeer Ahmad, Bismillah Khan and Muhammad Adeel.

Conflict of interest

The authors have declared no conflict of interest.

 

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