Nouraein M.

Effect of nanofertilizers and biofertilizers on yield of maize: biplot analysis

Abstract One of the newest and most interesting fields of science is nanotechnology, which is exploiting many areas such as life sciences; however, its application in agriculture is rarely studied. In order to examine the environment-friendly fertilizers (nano-sized and biological fertilizers), and control the agricultural nonpoint source pollution from the source, a field experiment was arranged to study the effects of bulk fertilizers (NPK, nitrogen biofertilizer, and phosphorus biofertilizer), nanofertilizers (nanoboron, nanozinc and nanocomplete) and no fertilizer treatment (control) on morphological traits of maize. The first two Principal Components (PCs) were used to create a biplot, which accounted for 72% of the variance of the treatment × trait interaction. The nanozinc fertilizers following nanoboron fertilizer were the best in most of the biological yield, seed yield, harvest index, and 100-grain weight. The vector-view biplot revealed a strong positive association between chlorophyll and protein content, seed yield with the number of kernels per ears and the number of rows per kernel. Nanocomplete fertilizer was the best treatment for chlorophyll content, protein percent and straw yield, while NPK did not high increase in the most traits of maize. This investigation indicated that treatment × trait biplot can graphically show the interrelationships among traits and facilitate visual comparison of fertilizers. In conclusion, it was found that zinc and boron nanofertilizers increased the production of most of the traits in maize. This study indicated that nano types of fertilizers could promote the studied traits in maize plant.

Doi https://doi.org/10.2478/botlit-2019-0014

Keywords nanoboron, nanocomplete, nanozinc, treatment × trait interaction

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