Potential of co-application of microbial enriched winery solid waste compost and inorganic fertilizers to enhance maize growth and yield parameters

The present study was conducted to assess the effects of co-application of winery solid waste compost (WWC) and synthetic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers (SF) on maize growth and yield parameters. The field experiment was conducted during the 2017/18 and 2018/19 summer cropping seasons. The WWCs (microbially inoculated and uninoculated) and SF were combined at ratios: 0:0, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, and 100:0 (wt/wt) to attain the amount of N and P supplied by the predicted rates of compost. The optimum SF rate (90 kg/ha P and 200 kg/ha N) for maize was used as a positive control. The non-significant (p <= 0.05) effect of compost type on growth and yield parameters indicated that the microbial inoculation during compost production has no effect on compost quality. Compared with control, WWC-SF combination (50:50) improved grain weight per cob by 18.6% in 2017/18. The increase in the measured yield parameters was quantitatively higher in treatment with the 50:50 WWC-SF mix ratio than in other treatments. Significant and positive correlations exist between growth and yield parameters. In conclusion, the study findings suggest that the combined application of WWC and SF has great potential to enhance the maize growth and yield attributes.