Effect of liquid fertilizers and growth stages of application on growth and yield of transplanted paddy

A field investigation entitled “Effect of liquid fertilizers and growth stages of application on growth and yield of transplanted paddy” was carried out at Agronomy Farm, College of Agriculture, Nagpur, during kharif season of 2023- 2024. The experimental field was laid out in a factorial randomized block design (FRBD) with two factors. The first factor was comprised of four liquid fertilizers treatments viz., L₁ (Foliar application of 1% 19:19:19), L₂ (Foliar application of 1% 19:19:19 + PDKV Grade-2), L₃ (Foliar application of 1% 13:0:45) and L₄ (Foliar application of 1% 13:0:45 + PDKV Grade-2) and the second factor comprised of three growth stages of application viz., G₁ (Maximum tillering), G₂ (Grain filling) and G₃ (Maximum tillering and grain filling) forming 12 treatment combinations replicated three times. Results revealed that, significantly higher values of plant height, dry matter accumulation hill^-1, effective tillers hill^-1, number of grains panicle^-1, weight of grains hill^-1, test weight, grain yield ha^-1, straw yield ha^-1, GMR, NMR and B:C ratio were recorded with the foliar application of liquid fertilizer 1% 13:0:45 + PDKV Grade-2 (L₄) over rest of the liquid fertilizers. However, it was found at par with foliar application of liquid fertilizer 1% 13:0:45 (L₃) for all the parameters except test weight. On the other hand, all the above mentioned parameters were found to be significantly superior with liquid fertilizer application at maximum tillering and grain filling stages (G₃), which was found at par with the liquid fertilizer application at maximum tillering stage (G₁) for all the parameters.