GROWTH AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF SUNFLOWER AS INFLUENCED BY DIFFERENT ORGANIC FERTILIZERS

Abstract

Current soil management strategies are mainly dependent on inorganic chemical-based fertilizers, which caused a serious threat to human health and the environment. The exploitation of beneficial microbes as organic fertilizers has become vital importance in agriculture for their potential role in food safety and sustainable crop production. The eco friendly approaches inspire application of organic fertilizers leading to improve plant growth, yield performance, and soil behavior quality. Therefore, to study the effect of different organic fertilizers in response to the growth and yield of sunflower, a field experiment was conducted at the research field of the Agronomy Department, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200 during the period from December 2021 to April 2022. Treatments included: T1 = Control (no application); T2 = Farm Yard Manure (FYM) @ 2 t ha-1; T3 = Vermicompost (VC) @ 2 t ha-1; T4 = Biochar (BC) @ 2 t ha-1; T5 = Farm Yard Manure (FYM) @ 1 t ha-1 + Vermicompost (VC) @ 1 t ha-1; T6= Farm Yard Manure (FYM) @ 1 t ha-1 + Biochar (BC) @ 1 t ha-1 and T7= Vermicompost (VC) @ 1 t ha-1 + Biochar (BC) @ 1 t ha-1. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed that all the yield attributes were significantly affected by the conjunctive use of different organic fertilizers. Results showed that T7 had the highest value for plant height (181.0 cm); leaves number plant-1 (48.7 no.); fresh weight of leaves plant-1 (12.5 g); dry weight plant-1 (45.61 g); leaf length (47.61 cm); chlorophyll content (193.67%); flower head diameter (30 cm); fresh and dry weight of flower head (342 g); weight of seed head-1 (45.53 g); biological yield (8.07 t ha-1); harvest index (47%); water holding capacity (92%) and seed yield (3.42 t ha-1). The crop under treatment T6 showed the highest value for stem diameter (11.7 cm); dry weight of leaves plant-1 (0.58 g); fresh weight of plant-1 (97.8 g); and leaf area index (1.40). Treatment T5 showed highest performance for fresh and dry seed number head-1 (1457 no.) and 1000 seeds weight (85.67 g). Therefore, it was concluded that among the organic fertilizers, vermicompost @ 1 t ha-1 + biochar @ 1 t ha-1 combined showed more promising results for sunflower growth and yield and the knowledge gained from the research will help us to understand the use of organic fertilizers towards sustainable agriculture in reducing problems associated with the use of chemicals fertilizers.