Grain Quality of Bread Wheat as Affected by Varieties and Nutrient Application of Nitrogen, Manganese and Copper

摘要

A field experiment was conducted for two years during Rabi 2011-12 and 2012-13 at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana under timely-sown, irrigated conditions on loamy sand soil (Typic Ustochrept) testing near normal in pH, low EC, low in available N, medium in available P and K, low in available Cu and low in available Mn. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with treatments comprising of three bread wheat varieties viz. HD 2967, PBW 621 and PBW 550 in main plot in combination with seven nutrient treatments (NPK alone as control, NPK + Mn (f), NPK + Cu (f), NPK + Mn (f) + Cu (f), NPK + N50 + Mn (f), NPK + N50 + Cu (f) and NPK + N50 + Mn (f) + Cu (f) in the sub plots. Three foliar (f) sprays of both 0.5% MnSO4. H2O and 0.1% CuSO4. 5H2O were done separately at three growth development phases such as mid-boot, pre-milk and dough stage. Significant qualitative improvement in physical grain characteristics such as grain appearance score (GAS), test weight (TW) and grain hardness (GH) and chemical grain characteristic such as SDS-Sedimentation value (SDS-SV) was observed in variety PBW 550 in comparison to PBW 621 and HD 2967 during both years of study. PBW 621 was found to be significantly higher than HD 2967 in grain hardness. Both varieties PBW 621 and HD 2967 were statistically inferior to PBW 550 but statistically at par with each other in test weight and grain appearance. HD 2967 was significantly higher in β-carotene than PBW 621 and PBW 550 which were statistically at par with each other. All the three varieties were statistically non-significant in protein content and phenol reaction score in both the years. Significant qualitative improvement in all of these physico-chemical grain characteristics was observed with application of NPK + N50 + Mn (f) + Cu (f) in comparison to all the treatments during both the years. The highest values of GAS (5.8, 6.0); TW (77.9 g, 77.8 g); GH (11.8 kg, 12.1 kg); SDS-SV (53cc, 55 cc) and β-Carotene (5.68ppm, 5.98 ppm) were observed under this best treatment for both years. PBW 550 produced the highest SDS-SV (53 cc, 55 cc) followed by PBW 621 (48 cc, 50 cc) and HD 2967 (45 cc, 47 cc) whereas p-Carotene was highest in HD 2967 (5.37 ppm, 5.69 ppm ) followed by PBW 550 (4.82 ppm, 5.17 ppm) followed by PBW 621 (4.80 ppm, 4.93 ppm). All nutrient treatments were significantly higher than control in protein content and grain hardness during both seasons. Phenol Reaction Score (PRS) was found non-significant in all three varieties and nutrient treatments in both years. The interaction effects of SDS-SV and GAS were significant during both seasons. The improvement in grain quality parameters may be attributed to the role of nitrogen and micronutrient in enhanced accumulation of assimilates in the grain during grain filling stage and thus the resulting seeds had greater individual masses.