DISTILLERY SPENT WASH AS A POTASSIUM SOURCE ON YIELD ATTRIBUTES, YIELD AND ECONOMICS OF MAIZE

V.M. RAVINDRA¹*, K.K. MATH², S.H. RAMYA³, K.M. PRASHANTH⁴, J.A. HOSMATH^5
1
2Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, 580 005, India
³Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, 580 005, India
⁴Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, 580 005, India
⁵Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, 580 005, India
* Corresponding Author : ravindramadanbhavi@gmail.com

Received : 14-02-2016     Accepted : 24-03-2016     Published : 28-05-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 18       Pages : 1318 - 1321
Int J Agr Sci 8.18 (2016):1318-1321

Keywords : Spent wash, Muriate of Potash (MOP), RCBD design, Maize, Yield attributes, Grain yield, Stover yield, Economics
Academic Editor : Dr Sanket Patel
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared
Author Contribution : None declared

The field experiment was conducted to study the effect of application of spent wash as a potassium source on yield attributing characters and yield of maize crop near Godavari Bio-refineries at Sameerwadi (Karnataka) during Kharif 2012 by using randomized block design with seven treatments and four replications. The soils were sandy clay loam in texture. The recommended potassium dose to the maize crop (150:75:37.5 N:P2O5:K2O kg/ha) was supplied through spent wash at 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 per cent levels. From this experiment, it was observed that the application of spent wash to substitute 50 per cent (T3) of recommended dose of potassium significantly improved the yield attributing characters viz., length of cob and its circumference, grains per cob, weight of 100 grains, grain and stover yield of maize compared to the higher levels of spent wash application (75, 100, 150 and 200 per cent), respectively. The application of spent wash in conjunction with potassic fertilizer (MOP) each at 50 per cent (T3) level to supply recommended dose of potassium to the crop produced grain yield of 7.3 t ha-1¬ that was on par with T1 treatment which received recommended dose of potassium through only chemical fertilizer (MOP) and T2 treatment which received recommended dose of potassium through spent wash at 25 per cent substitution level but, significantly superior to the treatment T4 and thereafter, received spent wash at higher levels.