Abstract

With the objective of increasing productivity of maize, a field experiment involving two levels of supplemental light (No light and supplemental light), three intra-row spacing levels (15, 20 and 25 cm) and five levels of foliar spray (control, 0.1% H₂SO.. 0.5% FeSO,, 0,5% ZnSO, and 0.5% MnSO,), laid out in double split-plot design, was conducted at Udaipur. The results indicated that grain yield, test-weight, chlorophyll content, leaf area index (LAI) and harvest index were significantly increased by artificially provided supplemental light ever control (no supplemental light). Intra-row spacing of 25 cm recorded significantly higher grain and total biological yields, test-weight and harvest index than remaining ones. The foliar spray of 0.1 per cent H,SO, gave the highest grain yield followed by sprays of FeSO, ZnSO, and MnSO, and the increases were of the order of 13.3, 9.9. 6.4 and 4.9 per cent over control. Balanced nutritional environment was also obtained due to foliar sprays besides higher LAI, chlorophyll content and yield attributes.

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