Abstract
Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal, which is affected adversely by nutrients deficiency. With the objective to combat
nutrients deficiency in maize through bio-liquid (earthworm wash), experiments were conducted at University of Agriculture,
Faisalabad, Pakistan. First experiment was executed for the characterization of bio-liquids from three different plant sources.
In the second experiment, the concentrations of extracted bio-liquids were optimized on morpho-physiological characteristics
of hybrid maize (P-1543). The experiment was conducted under Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with factorial
arrangement replicating four times. The treatments comprised of three sources of bio-liquids i.e. alligator weed (Alternanthera
philoxeroides), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and rice (Oryza sativa) straw in first experiment and four concentrations of bioliquids (Zero, 10%, 15% and 20%) were tested on maize in second experiment. Foliar spray of bio-liquids was applied at 10,
15 and 20 days after the crop emergence. The evaluation was done 45 days after emergence on the basis of various
morphological (plant height, number of leaf per plant, fresh weight of shoot, fresh weight of leaf) and physiological attributes
(water potential, osmotic potential, chlorophyll fluorescence, cell membrane stability index and relative water contents). The
results of first experiment showed that bio-liquid extracted from alligator weed proved to be best source of micro and macro
nutrients as compared to alfalfa and rice straw bio-liquids. The results of second experiment indicated that foliar spray of bioliquids from all sources improved plant height (16.55 cm), number of leaves per plant (7.80), leaf area per plant (187.41 cm2
), total fresh weight per plant (5.74 g), water potential (-0.79 MPa), osmotic potential (-0.17MPa), chlorophyll fluorescence
(0.84), cell membrane stability (40.27) and relative water content (91.80%) as compared to control. It can be concluded that
growth of maize plants was improved when bio-liquids were sprayed on plants. Foliar application of alligator weed bio-liquid
@ 15% showed maximum morpho-physiological performance of maize.
Keywords: Earthworm, vermicompost, bio-liquids, foliar spray, maize.
M. Tahir. (2021) EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT BIO-LIQUIDS (EARTHWORM WASH) ON MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAIZE, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 58, Issue 2.
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