MICRONUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY IN WHEAT AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT APPLICATION METHODS

The present research was carried out to investigate the effect of micronutrients and their application methods on wheat variety Gomal-8 under the agro-ecology of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, during the year 2010-11. The trial was laid out in a randomized complete block design with split-plot arrangements. Main plot possessed five micronutrients viz., Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and B while application methods (side dressing, foliar application and soil application) were assigned to sub-plots. The results revealed that boron application @ 2 kg ha(-1) recorded higher crop growth rate (30.14 g m(-2) day(-1)), net assimilation rate (2.78 mg m(-2) day(-1)), number of tillers (307.00 m(-2)), number of grains spike(-1) (61.08) and grain yield (5.63 t ha(-1)). The use of copper @ 8 kg ha(-1) also showed encouraging results similar to boron. Among various application methods, soil application (at sowing) showed the best results as compared to side dressing and foliar application both at 4 weeks after sowing (WAS). Also, different micronutrients significantly interacted with the application methods for physiological and agronomic traits including leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate (NAR) and grain yield. Soil application best interacted with boron for producing higher number of tillers, grains spike(-1), grain yield and almost all the physiological traits. This combination also resulted in the best net returns with higher benefit cost ratio.