Soil test Based Nutrient Management for Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.): Analysis of Growth, Biomass, Nutrient uptake and soil nutrient status

Abstract

The Studies were carried out to assess the influence of different levels of soil test based nutrient management on Growth, Biomass, Nutrient uptake and Available soil nutrient status  of sunflower. The results revealed that the maximum taller plants, more number of leaves, leaf area dm², leaf area index, nutrient uptake kg ha^-1, available nutrients kg ha^-1 and total Biomass production (108.07 g plant^-1) was obtained with T₉ (STCR approach + Foliar spray of NPK @ 1% + ZnSO₄ @ 0.5% + FeSO₄ @ 0.5% and B @ 0.2%), which was, at par with treatments where T₃ (STCR approach ) and T₈ (Soil test based NPK + Foliar spray of NPK @ 1% + ZnSO₄ @ 0.5% + FeSO₄ @ 0.5% and B @ 0.2% )was applied. While the minimum Biomass production (86.89 g plant^-1) and growth characteristics were recorded in case of foliar spray of T₄ (NPK @ 1% + ZnSO₄ @ 0.5% + FeSO₄ @ 0.5% and B @ 0.2%). Nutrient management based on soil tested data besides maintaining the available N, P and K of soil, leading to positive nutrient balance.

Keywords: Biomass production, soil testing, nutrient uptake, Available nutrient, Sunflower