Growth and yield response of hybrid maize to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation and zinc fertilizer management

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory in Bangladesh Agricultural University to evaluate the effect of AMF inocu- lation and Zn fertilizer management on growth and yield of hybrid maize Kohinoor 1820. The experiment consisted of two levels of AMF inoculation (AMF-inoculated and non-inoculated) and five levels of Zn fertilizer manage- ment. The Zn management regimes were NoZinc = no Zn fertilizer (control); Basal100 = 100% recommended dose (RD) of Zn fertilizer added during final land preparation; Foliar100@EV = 100% RD of Zn was applied as foliar spray during early vegetative (EV) stage; Folar100@Rp = 100% RD of Zn was applied as foliar spray during reproductive (Rp) stage; Foliar@50EV+50Rp = 100% RD of Zn fertilizer was applied as foliar spray by equal split during EV and Rp stages. ZnSO4.7H2O @15 kg ha−1 was used for basal application and 0.1% of the same fertilizer was used as foliar spray. The experiment was laid out a factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replica- tions. ‘Serakinkon’, a commercially available AMF inoculum was collected from Japan and used in the experiment. The inoculum mainly consisted of Gigaspora margarita species of AMF. It was found that both AMF inocu- lation and Zn fertilizer management significantly affected leaf greenness (SPAD value), number of cobs plant−1, number of seeds cob−1, weight of 1000 grains, and grain yield (all p