Effect of Time of Fertilizer Application on Yield and Yield Components of Tef ((Eragrostic tef) Trotter) at Shebedino, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Time of DAP application vary from farmer to farmer. Therefore, there is a need to determine time of DAP for recommending to tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc) Trotter). Accordingly, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of the time of DAP application on yield and yield components of tef at Shebedino, Southern Ethiopia in 2012 cropping season.DZ-37 tef variety was used as a test crop. The times of DAP fertilize application consisted application at planting, two, four, six and eight days before planting; was laid out in Randomized Complete Block design (RCBD) with four replications. DAP applied two days before planting had significantly affected days to heading and maturity, plant height , first growth rate, number of tiller and panicle, thousand seed weight, grain, straw and total biomass yields and harvest index. Days to emergence and panicle length were significantly affected by fertilizer applied two days before planting. Also DAP applied two days before planting hasten days to heading and maturity by 4 and 5 days, respectively, than DAP applied eight days before planting. Meanwhile DAP applied two days before sowing increased panicles, grain and biomass yields by 41.7, 62.1and 59.6% respectively, than DAP applied eight days before sowing. DAP applied at the time of sowing, had 54.7 and 1.07% more 1000 seed weight and harvest index respectively, than DAP applied at the time of sowing. Therefore, DAP application two days before planting could be recommended as an economically feasible choice for the study area. Keywords: time of fertilizer/DAP application before planting