EFFECT OF HUMIC SUBSTANCES ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF SUNFLOWER ...

132 Pages·2016·11.25 MB·English

EFFECT OF HUMIC SUBSTANCES ON
GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF

SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus L.)

By
HHAARRSSHHAADDSSIINNGGHH VVIIRREENNDDRRAASSIINNGGHH TTHHAAKKUURR
B.Sc. (Ag.)

THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE
ACHARYA N.G.RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE
(AGRONOMY)

CHAIRPERSON: Dr. K. BHANU REKHA

DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
RAJENDRANAGAR, HYDERABAD-500 030
ACHARYA N. G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
2013
DECLARATION
I, HARSHADSINGH VIRENDRASINGH THAKUR, hereby declare that the
thesis entitled “EFFECT OF HUMIC SUBSTANCES ON GROWTH, YIELD AND
QUALITY OF SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus L.)” submitted to the Acharya N.
G. Ranga Agricultural University for the degree of Master of Science in Agriculture is
the result of original research work done by me. I also declare that no material contained in
the thesis has been published earlier in any manner.

Place: Hyderabad (HARSHADSINGH VIRENDRASINGH THAKUR)
I. D. No. RAM/10-09
Date:
CERTIFICATE

Mr. HARSHADSINGH VIRENDRASINGH THAKUR has satisfactorily
prosecuted the course of research and that thesis entitled “EFFECT OF HUMIC
SUBSTANCES ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF SUNFLOWER
(Helianthus annuus L.)” submitted is the result of original research work and is of
sufficiently high standard to warrant its presentation to the examination. I also certify that
neither the thesis nor its part thereof has been previously submitted by him for a degree of
any university.

Date: (Dr. K. BHANU REKHA)
Chairperson
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the thesis entitled “EFFECT OF HUMIC SUBSTANCES ON
GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus L.)”
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF
SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE of the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University,
Hyderabad is a record of the bonafide research work carried out by Mr. HARSHADSINGH
VIRENDRASINGH THAKUR under our guidance and supervision. The subject of the
thesis has been approved by the Student’s Advisory Committee.
No part of the thesis has been submitted for any other degree or diploma or has
been published. The published part has been fully acknowledged. All the assistance and
help received during the course of investigation have been duly acknowledged by the
author of the thesis.

(Dr. K.BHANU REKHA)
CHAIRPERSON OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Thesis approved by the Student’s Advisory Committee

Chairman : (Dr. K.BHANU REKHA)
Assistant Professor,
Department of Agronomy,
_________________
College of Agriculture, ANGRAU,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030

Member : (Dr. S. N. SUDHAKARA BABU)
Principal Scientist, (Crop production)
Directorate of Oilseeds Research (DOR),
_________________
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030

Member : (Dr. G. PADMAJA)
Professor,
Department of Soil Science & Agril. Chemistry,
_________________
College of Agriculture,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030

Date of final viva-voce:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With regardful memories ……
I offer my salutations at the feet of GOD, who kindly provided the energy and
enthusiasm through ramifying the paths of thick and thin of my efforts.
I would like to take this opportunity to place my profound debt of gratitude on record to
my major Advisor and Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Dr. K. Bhanu Rekha, Assistant
Professor, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad for her
valuable suggestions, encouragement, affection, personal guidance, keen interest, immeasurable
help and inspiration given to me throughout my work and who has made it possible to bring out
this thesis.
I am equally and deeply indebted to Dr. S. N. Sudhakara Babu, Principal Scientist
(Crop Production), DOR, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, member of my Advisory Committee for his
encouragement, technical suggestions and constructive criticism in perfect conduct of the
experimental work and presentation of thesis.
I owe my effusive thanks to Dr. G. Padmaja, Professor, Department of Soil Science and
Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, member of my
Advisory Committee for her timely help, co-operation and constant guidance and valuable
suggestions throughout the investigation.
I am especially grateful to, Dr. A. Srinivas, (Professor& Head) Department of Agronomy
for his meticulous guidance. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. G. E. Ch. Vidyasagar (PG
Incharge), Dept. of Agronomy, Dr. G. Sreenivas Professor (Agronomy), Dr. K. B. Suneetha Devi
Professor (Agronomy), Dr. M. Yakadri, Head and Principal Scientist (AICRP weed control), Dr.
A. Pratap Kumar Reddy (Principal Scientist), Dr. K. P. Vani Associate Professor, Dr. P. Leela
Rani, Assistant Professor, Dr. M. Shiva Shankar, Professor and Head of College Farm, Dr.
Sayed Ahmad Hussain, Professor and Sri. B. Shamlal, A. O. (Retd.) Department of Agronomy,
College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad for their help rendered in all aspects for my
thesis work.
It is time to surface out genuflect love and affectionate gratitude to my dearest parents,
Sri. Virendrasingh Thakur and Smt. Vaishali for their blessings, inspiration, encouragement and
moral support throughout my educational career.
I owe much to my loving brothers Shantanu Thakur, Vishal Thakur, Sumit Thakur and
my sister Neha Thakur for their everlasting affection, co-operation and encouragement in my life.
They have been a fountain of inspiration throughout my life without whose help in every walk of life, this
work would not have been possible.
It is pleasure to acknowledge the affection and inspiration rendered by my senior friends
Rahul M Fuke, Manoj Jugseniya, Sachin Malwe, Pankaj Jadhao and Kishore Mote for their
affection, special care and all time pragmatic help and operation which helped for my goal setting
and spiritual upliftment during my studies and worries.
Words fail to express my heartfelt thanks to my senior friends Sri Ranjitha, B. Sowmya,
Rayala Srinivas, Sudhanshu Kasbe, Siddappa, Yogesh Mali and all my beloved U. G. FF series
friends for their co-operation, moral support and transcendent suggestions during the course of
my study.
Alphabets are insufficient and words are not enough to express my heartfelt thanks to
my best friends Anand, Ashwin, Ankit, Umesh, Pursha, Pravin Kharode, Dhananjay, Siddu,
Vijay, Manoj, Nilesh, Jugal, Ajinkya, Ashish, Akash, Shipe, Amit, Om, Padam Kadam, Mukesh,
Amol Munje, Pankaj, Ani, Nitin, Vasanta Kange, Dasharath Shinde and Santosh for their co-
operation, moral support and transcendent suggestions during the course of my study.
It is time to surface out my over whelming sense of affection to my friends Yogesh Giri,
Arbind Gupta, Manish Jha, Divakar, Rajib Das, Saiprasad Jogdande and Shubham Divekar, for
their whole hearted co-operation to materialize this work.
I am extremely grateful to all my friends Mr. Raghavendra, Mr.Venkanna, Mr. Anil, Mr.
Bharath, Mr. Shasikanth, Mr. Saikiran, Mr. Shankar, Mr. Gouse, Ms. Spandana, Ms. Swarna,
Ms. Nandita, Ms. Nalini, Ms. Ashakumari, Ms. Johasana, and my junior friends Mr. Byomkesh,
Mr. Partha, Mr. Meena, Mr. Naresh, Mr.Tirupathi, Mr. Kishore, Mr.Mahesh, Mr. Narendar,
Mr. Nagendar, Ms. Pallavi, Ms. Divya, Ms. Swetha and Mr. Anil.
I am grateful to Dr. Husain Prof. college farm, for helping me in successful completion of
my field work. I personally thank Mr. Osman (AEO, College farm), Dr. khanerkar, and Prof.
Sudhir Ghodchar for his support contributed and whole hearted encouragement during this
work.
My special thanks are due to one and all at the Dept. of Agronomy for their help
provided to carry out my field trial in a successful manner. I also acknowledge the favours of
numerous persons who, though not been individually mentioned here, have all directly or
indirectly contributed during the course of the study.
(Harshad V Thakur)
LIST OF CONTENTS

Chapter No. Title Page No.
I INTRODUCTION
II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
III MATERIAL AND METHODS
IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
LITERATURE CITED
APPENDICES
LIST OF TABLES
Table Title Page
No. No.
3.1 Soil physico-chemical properties of the experimental site
3.2 Cropping history of the experimental site
3.3 Chemical analysis of humic granules, humic acid and fulvic acid
4.1 Plant height (cm) of sunflower as influenced by different treatments
4.2 Number of leaves of sunflower as influenced by different treatments
4.3 Leaf area index of sunflower as influenced by different treatments
Dry matter accumulation in leaf (g plant-1) of sunflower at 30, 45, 60
4.4
DAS and at harvest as influenced by different treatments
Dry matter accumulation in stem (g plant-1) at 30, 45, 60 DAS and at
4.4.1 harvest and dry matter accumulation in capitulum (g plant-1) at 60 DAS
and at harvest of sunflower as influenced by different treatments
Total dry matter accumulation (g plant-1) of sunflower at 30, 45, 60
4.4.2
DAS and at harvest as influenced by different treatments
Leaf area duration (LAD) of sunflower at different stages as influenced
4.5
by different treatments
Crop growth rate (CGR) g m-2 day-1 of sunflower at different stages as
4.5.1
influenced by different treatments
Relative growth rate (RGR) g m-2 day-1 of sunflower at different stages
4.5.2
as influenced by different treatments
Net assimilation rate (NAR) g g-1 day-1 of sunflower at different stages
4.5.3
as influenced by different treatments
Stem girth (cm) of sunflower at 30, 45, 60 DAS and at harvest as
4.6
influenced by different treatments
SPAD chlorophyll meter readings of sunflower at different growth
4.7
stages as influenced by different treatments
Days to 50 % flowering and physiological maturity of sunflower as
4.8
influenced by different treatments
Head diameter (cm) and central unfilled diameter (cm) of capitulum of
4.9
sunflower as influenced by different treatments
Test weight (g), number of filled and unfilled seeds head-1, seed filling
4.10 percentage (%) and seed yield plant-1 (g) as influenced by different
treatments
Seed yield (kg ha-1), stalk yield (kg ha-1) and harvest index (%) of
4.11
sunflower as influenced by different treatments
Oil content (%), oil yield (kg ha-1) and protein yield (kg ha-1) of
4.12
sunflower as influenced by different treatments
Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium uptake (kg ha-1) of sunflower at
4.13
flowering stage as influenced by different treatments
Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium uptake (kg ha-1) of sunflower at
4.13.1
harvest as influenced by different treatments
Post harvest soil fertility properties as influenced by different
4.14
treatments
Post harvest available soil nutrient status (kg ha-1) as influenced by
4.14.1
different treatments
Post harvest bacterial, actinomycetes and fungal population (CFU gram
4.15 soil-1) as influenced by different treatments
Cost of cultivation ( ha-1), gross returns ( ha-1), net returns ( ha-1)
4.16 and B: C ratio as influenced by different treatments
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Title Page
No. No.
3.1 Weekly meteorological data during the crop growth period from
July’ 12 to Oct’ 12
3.2 Layout of the experimental site
3.3 Chemical properties of humic substances
4.1 Plant height (cm) of sunflower at different crop growth stages as
influenced by different treatments
4.2 Leaf area index of sunflower at different crop growth stages as
influenced by different treatments
4.3 Dry matter accumulation in leaf (g plant-1) of sunflower at
different crop growth stages as influenced by different treatments
4.3.1 Dry matter accumulation in stem (g plant-1) of sunflower at
different crop growth stages as influenced by different treatments
4.3.2 Dry matter accumulation in capitulum (g plant-1) of sunflower at
different crop growth stages as influenced by different treatments
4.3.3 Total dry matter accumulation (g plant-1) of sunflower at different
crop growth stages as influenced by different treatments
4.4 Stem girth (cm) of sunflower at different crop growth stages as
influenced by different treatments
4.5 SPAD chlorophyll meter readings of sunflower at different crop
growth stages as influenced by different treatments
4.6 Head diameter (cm) of sunflower as influenced by different
treatments
4.7 Filled and unfilled seeds head-1 of sunflower as influenced by
different treatments
4.8 Seed and stalk yield (kg ha-1) of sunflower as influenced by
different treatments
4.8.1 Harvest index (%) of sunflower as influenced by different
treatments
4.9 Oil content (%) of sunflower as influenced by different treatments
Oil yield and Protein yield (kg ha-1) of sunflower as influenced by
4.9.1 different treatments