Influence of Nitrogen and Micronutrient Fertilizer Blends on Growth and Yield of Maize Varieties

Abstract

The greenhouse experiment was conducted at the greenhouse of the Institute for Agricultural Research in Samaru (11 o 11' N, 7 o 38'E) within the northern Guinea savanna ecological zone of Nigeria to study the effects of nitrogen and micronutrients on growth and yield of maize. The study was conducted to determine the effects of different nitrogen levels combined with four micronutrients on growth and yield of maize varieties in the Northern Guinea Savanna, to establish the impacts of nitrogen and micronutrients blends on yield of maize. The greenhouse treatments consisted of four rates of nitrogen fertilizer (0, 50, 100 and 150kgNha-1), two rates of micronutrients (0, cocktail mixtures) Cu, Fe, Zn, B and Mo and four maize varieties SAMMAZ 14 and SUSUMA (QPM) and SAMMAZ 11 and SAMMAZ 12 (normal maize) which gave a total of thirty-two (32) treatments with basal application of 60kgha-1 P as P2O5 and 60kgha-1 K as K2O. These were tested in a Completely Randomized Design in the greenhouse with three replications with a total of 96pots. The fertilizer treatments were factorially combined. The result revealed that micronutrients application enhanced the performance of the QPM than the normal maize. SUSUMA variety (QPM) was superior in performance than SAMMAZ 14 (QPM) in that it produced taller plants (65.50 cm), more number of leaves (12.75) and higher dry matter yield of 6.67g/pot at low application of nitrogen (50kgNha-1). Farmers can therefore adopt the QPM varieties (SUSUMA and SAMMAZ 14) since it is easy to cultivate like the normal maize in the same environment and climatic conditions with higher yield and of more quality than the normal maize.