Abstract

                                A pot culture study was conducted to investigate the effect of siliconfertilization on the growth and physiological traits of ten different hybridmaize genotypes. The treatment structure comprises three levels of silicon(0, 75 and 150 kg ha-1) as calcium silicate and ten hybrid maize genotypesin a completely randomized design. The genotypes were imposed withrecommended NPK (250:75:75 kg ha-1) and grown-up to 40 days. At the endof 40 days, the dry matter production, SPAD, biochemical compounds likesoluble proteins, phenols, proline and antioxidants such as peroxidase andsuperoxide dismutase (SOD) were recorded. Results showed a linear increasein the overall development of hybrid maize genotypes with increasing siliconfertilization upto 150 kg Si ha-1. The genotype COH (M) 8 was the mostresponsive genotype to Si application among all the genotypes, followedby CMH 12-586 and VaMH 12014. In the case of biochemical attributes,genotypic variation played a significant role in expressing the impact of Si.Lesser response to Si fertilization and its accumulation was noticed withNK 6240 and COH (M) 9 on the growth and biochemical attributes. Siliconfertilization improved the biochemical and antioxidant activity of the maizegenotypes and the response varied with levels of Si. A positive and significantresponse to Si fertilization was observed with soluble protein (9.82 mg g-1),phenols (0.70 mg g-1), peroxidase (0.83 units min-1 mg-1) and SOD activity(8.93 U g-1) whereas an inverse significant relationship was noticed withthe proline content (4.43 μmoles g-1) of the plants which confirmed the roleof Si in plant defense mechanism. The relationship study also confirmedthe positive and significant correlation between growth parameters and drymatter production of the genotypes for silicon fertilization.

Key words : Antioxidants, Biochemical compounds, Chlorophyll, Dry matter production, Maize genotypes, Silicon levels