Studies on the impact of iron and zinc nutrition on growth and quality of linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.)

A field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vijayapura during rabi season, 2020-21 to study the effect of iron and zinc nutrition on growth and quality of linseed as the iron and zinc content in the soil at College of Agriculture is below the critical limit. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with ten treatments and three replications. The treatments included RPP (Recommended package of practices) and application of ferrous sulphate @ 5, 10 and 15 kg ha-1 and zinc sulphate @ 5, 10 and 15 kg ha-1 in various combinations along with RPP (Recommended package of practices @ 40:20:20:3000-N:P2O5:K2O:FYM kg ha-1). The results of the experiment revealed that, the application of iron and zinc in combinations resulted in significant increase in growth and quality of linseed as compared to RPP alone. Among the different treatments combination RPP + 15 kg FeSO4 ha-1 + 15 kg ZnSO4 ha-1 was resulted in the maximum plant height at flowering (46.5cm) and at harvest (49.1), dry matter accumulation (5.08 g plant⁻¹), number of branches per plant (5.40), number of capsules per plant (59.0) and number of seeds per capsule (5.97) and higher oil content (40.3%) and protein content of linseed (20.6%) were recorded. These results were on par with the application of RPP + 15 kg FeSO4 ha-1 + 10 kg ZnSO4 ha-1 and lower values were recorded in the treatment that received RPP alone. Finally it could be concluded that the application of fertilizers containing iron and zinc helps to improve crop growth, oil and protein content in linseed crop.