Estimation of yield, phenology and agro-meteorological indices of Quality Protein Maize (Zea mays L.) under different nutrient omissions in temperate ecology of Kashmir

The major yield governing factors especially under rainfed ecosystem are the agro-meteorological indices. Hence, an experiment was conducted in 2021 kharif season to examine the impact of nutrient omission on phenology, yield and agro-meteorological indices of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) under the North Western Himalayas of India at the Agronomy farm of FoA (Faculty of Agriculture), Wadoora, Sopore, SKUAST-Kashmir. Eight treatments were used in the experiment viz. (T1-Absolute control, T2-N120P75K40, T3-N120P75K40Zn5S10, T4-P75K40Zn5S10 (-N), T5-N120K40Zn5S10 (-P), T6-N120P75Zn5S10 (-K), T7-N120P75K40S10 (-Zn) and T8-N120P75K40Zn5 (-S)), using a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results demonstrated that recommended dose of fertilizer plus zinc and sulphur (T3-N120P75K40Zn5S10) noted higher grain (9.78 t ha−1) and biological (22.05 t ha−1) yield, a longer period of time to reach various phonological stages thereby achieved maximum heat units or growing degree days (GDD), heliothermal units (HTU), photo-thermal units (PTU), pheno-thermal index (PTI) and heat use efficiency (HUE). Nitrogen was the most limiting nutrient thereby accumulating least heat units and HUE. The agrometeorological indices could be therefore helpful in predicting the phenology and maize yield. The outcomes of the experiment showed that using the recommended fertilizer dosage plus zinc and sulphur in QPM should be adopted to attain higher yield under the North Western Himalayas of India, However, additional agro-ecological study is required to further validate the findings.