Abstract            Volume:5  Issue-8  Year-2017         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

A pot culture experiment was conducted at Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India to study the response of hybrid sunflower to integrated nutrient management practices on the growth and yield and economics of hybrid sunflower during January to April 2015. The experiment consisted of five treatments viz., T1-Control (RDF-recommended dose of fertilizer; 50:90:60 kgs of NPK ha-1), T2- T1+ Vermicompost @ 5t ha-1, T3-T2 + Foliar spray of silicon @ 500ml ha-1, T4-T1 + Poultry manure @ 5t ha-1, T5-T4 + Foliar spray of silicon @ 500ml ha-1. The experiment was laid out by adopting randomized block design and replicated thrice. Among the different treatments tried, T5 significantly increased the growth attributes and yield attributes, yield (seed, stalk and oil yield) and return per rupee invested of hybrid sunflower. This treatment recorded maximum values for growth attributes viz., plant height (116cm) at harvest, Leaf area index (5.90) at flowering, Dry matter production (3926 kg ha-1) at harvest, brings earliness in 50% flowering (51.12 days) and total chlorophyll content (2.16) at 60 DAS, and yield attributes viz., head diameter (13.5cm), number of seeds head-1 (680) and hundred seed weight (4.54gm) and seed (1525 kg ha-1) and stalk yield (3500 kg ha-1). This treatment also recorded maximum oil yield with 575 kg ha-1 and maximum return per rupee invested (2.81). This treatment was closely followed by T3¬. T1 recorded lowest values for plant height (80.3cm) at harvest, LAI (3.49) at flowering, DMP (2051 kg ha-1) at harvest, delayed flowering (61.24 days) and total chlorophyll content (1.31) and yield attributes viz., head diameter (8.9cm), number of seeds head-1 (460) and hundred seed weight (2.9gm) and seed (980kg ha-1) and stalk yield (2570 kg ha-1) and oil yield (370 kg ha-1). T1 also registered minimum values for return per rupee invested with 1.48.

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