Response of sunflower varieties to NPK fertilization
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study was executed at Agriculture Research Institute (ARI) Tarnab (Peshawar) to evaluate the response of sunflower varieties (hybrids) to different combinations of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash (NPK). Four sunflower varieties (hybrids i.e Aritar-93, Peshawar-93, Hysun-33 and SF-187) were sown with five levels of NPK (40:40:40, 80:50:50, 120:60:60, 160:70:70 and 200:80:80 kg ha-1) using two factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. With the increase of NPK levels, significant increase for disc diameter (13%), plant height (4%), days to maturity (8%), 1000 grain weight (9%), biological yield (20%) and grain yield (12%) were recorded with the exception of filled grain head-1. Better performance was observed for 200-80-80 kg ha-1 NPK than the rest of the fertilizer treatments. The interaction between fertilizers and varieties (F × V) had non-significant effect on all parameters; however, varieties were significantly different from one another. Hybrids i.e SF-187 and Hysun-33 performed best among the four hybrids in all parameters with yield capacity of 1408 and 1267 kg grain ha-1 respectively. Thus it is suggested to apply NPK at the rate of 200-80-80 kg ha-1 to hybrids SF-187 and Hysun-33 for obtaining good yield of sun flower among the studied combinations.
Keywords: Grain yield; Hybrids; Nitrogen; Phosphrou; Potassium; Sunflower