Vol. 7, Issue 2 (2019)

The pot experiment was carried out at the Net House of the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand on the “Influence of phosphorus, sulphur and FYM on growth and yield of forage maize (Zea Mays L.) grown on loamy sand soil” during summer season of the year 2017. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design (factorial) with three repetitions. The three levels of P2O5 (0, 30 and 60 kg ha-1), three levels of S (0, 10 and 20 kg ha-1) and two levels of FYM (0 and 10 t ha-1) were tested in the experiment.

Application of P2O5 @ 60 kg ha-1 and application of S @ 20 kg ha-1 recorded significantly higher plant height at 30 DAS and at harvest than control. Significantly higher plant height was recorded with application of FYM @ 10 t ha-1 than control at 30 DAS as well as at harvest. Crop fertilized with P2O5 @ 60 kg ha-1 and FYM @ 10 t ha-1 gave significantly the highest green forage and dry matter yields, respectively. Similarly, application of S @ 20 kg ha-1 recorded significantly the highest dry matter, whereas application of S @ 20 kg ha-1 recorded higher green forage yield than rest of treatments, except S @ 10 kg ha-1. The combination of phosphorus @ 60 kg ha-1 along with sulphur @ 20 kg ha-1 gave significantly higher green forage yield and dry matter yield than rest of the combinations except P2O5 @ 60 kg ha-1 with S @ 10 kg ha-1. The combination of P2O5 and FYM (P2O5 @ 60 kg ha-1 with FYM @ 10 t ha-1) recorded significantly higher dry matter yield of maize than rest of the combinations barring combination of P2O5 @ 60 kg ha-1 with FYM @ 10 t ha-1.