PHYTOMORPHOLOGY OF WHEAT AND ITS GRAIN QUALITY RESPONSE TO DIVERSE APPROACHES OF IRON APPLICATION

Abstract

Agriculture soils of Pakistan are already deficient of macronutrients, and now inadequacy for micronutrients has also been reported causing adverse effects on crop productivity. The study was carried out to investigate the effect of soil and foliar applied iron (Fe) on wheat. The treatments included: T1=Control (without Fe), T2=Soil applied Fe 3 kg ha‑1, T3=Soil applied Fe 6 kg ha‑1, T4=Foliar applied Fe 0.2%, T5=Foliar applied Fe 0.4%, T6=Soil applied Fe 1.5 kg ha-1+foliar applied Fe 0.1%, T7=Soil applied Fe 1.5 kg ha-1+foliar applied Fe 0.2%, T8=Soil applied Fe 3 kg ha-1+foliar applied Fe 0.1% and T9=Soil applied Fe 3 kg ha-1+foliar applied Fe 0.2%. All the treatments as alone or in combination, affected growth, yield and quality of wheat significantly (P<0.05). The results showed that T9 and T3 were most promising for almost all studied traits. Under T9 and T3, variety “TD-1” produced plants of 59.44 and 59.09 cm, while “Sindhu” showed  92.9 and 75.98 cm height, respectively. Higher grain yield (4799.7 and 4760.5 kg ha-1), grain protein (17.22 and 17.13%) were also recorded in T9 and T3, respectively; while T1 remained the least. In varieties, “TD-1” produced higher grain yield (4788.9 kg) than “Sindhu” (4341.8 kg ha-1). Inversely, grain protein was higher in variety “Sindhu” (17.10%) than “ TD-1” (16.72%). It was concluded that soil applied Fe 3 kg ha-1+foliar Fe 0.2% concentration or in absence of foliar application, soil applied Fe at 6 kg ha-1 remained most appropriate dose for wheat growers in addition to recommended NPK