Vol. 13, Issue 9 (2024)

Author(s):
SR Solanki, A Mishra and HA Chaudhari

Abstract:
Silica is most copious in the lithosphere and stands as the second richest element on Earth’s crust. The average Si content on Earth’s crust pedosphere is 28% (Wedepohl, 1995). Silica remains in the soil in the form of silica (Silicon dioxide: SiO₂), silica gel, and silicates. A field trial was taken on “Effect of silicon and FYM on growth and yield of Kharif maize (Zea mays L.)” during the Kharif season of 2022 at College of Agronomy farm, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand (Gujarat). The experiment was taken on randomized block design (factorial) with three levels of FYM treatments i.e. control, FYM @ 5 t/ha and10 t/ha and four levels of silicon fertilizer i.e. control, natural silica @ 100 kg/ha, 200 kg/ha and 300 kg/ha and repeated three times. Altogether, there were total twelve treatment combinations to plot out. The interaction effect of the treatments failed to exert any significant change with all the characters except available phosphorus (P₂O₅) and available silicon in soil.