Influence of Spacing and Zinc Application on Growth and Productivity of Baby Corn (Zea mays L.)

The present trial was undertaken at Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, SHUATS, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh during the 2021 summer season (Zaid). The test was a Randomized Block Design having three replicates. A total of nine treatments were designed with different levels of spacing and quantity of zinc application. The cultivation land was uniform with sandy loam soil with pH neutral. The soil had low level of organic carbon (0.72%), medium level of available nitrogen (278.28 kg ha-1) and potassium (233.24 kg ha-1) and higher level of phosphorus (27.80 kg ha-1). Amongst all the treatments, T9 with 60 X 20 cm spacing and 25 kgha-1ZnSO4 had the maximum plant height (168.13 cm), number of leaves per plant (13.25), dry plant mass (90.96 g/plant), number of cobs per plant (2.37), length of the cob per plant (18.77 cm), cob weight with husk (47.92 g), cob weight without husk (22.70 g). Further, the maximum crop growth rate (30.45 g/m2/day), cob yield with husk (14.63 t/ha), cob yield without husk (5.09 t/ha) and green fodder yield (28.83 t/ha) was observed for T3 with 40 X 20 cm spacing and 20 kg ha-1ZnSO4.