Response of Spring and Autumn Sunflower to Chemical and Bio-Fertilizers for Yield and Quality Traits
Response of Spring and Autumn Sunflower to Chemical and Bio-Fertilizers for Yield and Quality Traits
Muhammad Tahirand Memoona Shehzadi*
ABSTRACT
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is one of the major oilseed crops grown worldwide for the production of edible oils. In order to increase the oil production there is dire need to grow more sunflower by using the economical and environment friendly techniques. Present study was proposed to evaluate theresponse of spring and autumn sunflower to chemical and bio-fertilizers for yield and quality traits during 2014 at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The treatments comprised on the combination of chemical fertilizers (No chemical fertilizer, half recommended dose of fertilizer and full recommended dose of chemical fertilizer) and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) (No PGPR, PGPR-1, PGPR-2 and PGPR-1 + PGPR-2). The PGPR used in this study were pre-isolated and characterized, taken from soil microbiology and biochemistry laboratory, Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences (ISES), University of Agriculture Faisalabad. In this experiment Randomize Complete Block Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangements having three replications was used. Significantly maximum 1000 achene weight, achene yield, biological yield, harvest index and protein content were recorded where seed inoculation with PGPR-1 + PGPR-2 and full dose of recommended chemical was applied during both the growing seasons. Overall the performance of sunflower was better in spring as compared to autumn season. However, it was also noted that the combination of PGPR-1 + PGPR-2 and half recommended doses of chemical fertilizer gave results as full recommended dose of chemical fertilizer alone. Therefore, PGPR enhanced the yield by reducing the use of chemical fertilizer, leading towards the sustainable agriculture.
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