In this study, attempts were made to investigate the growth and yield performance of a
Bangladeshi bread wheat cultivar (Sonalica) under the influence of three different nitrogen
fertilizer levels and one concentration level of ComCat ® , a commercial bio-stimulant, applied
either as a seed treatment before planting or as a foliar spray on seedlings at the 3- leaf growth
stage, under glasshouse conditions. Initially the South African (RSA) standard N-level for
winter wheat was taken as the medium N- level together with a down scaled (low) and an up
scaled (high) rate during the 2001 season in order to ascertain the optimum level. However, it
was observed that the Bangladeshi cultivar could not tolerate the RSA standard (medium rate)
for nitrogen application. After germination all plants fertilized with the medium and high
nitrogen rates, died off. Subsequently, this N-level was taken as the medium level for the
2002 trial and a new down scaled (low) and up scaled (high) N-level was calculated and
applied, together with the two ComCat ® treatments.
Overall, even though the nitrogen fertilizer application was scaled down substantially during
the 2002 growing season, the response of this bread wheat cultivar, in terms of growth and
yield, was more positive at the lowest N-level. Results obtained during 2002 consistently
confirmed that the application of ComCat ® , especially as a foliar spray at stage 13 of seedling
development, affected the vegetative growth of plants. However, the enhancing effect of the
bio-stimulant was more pronounced on yie ld, in terms of both the increase in number of
kernels and kernel dry mass per plant.
Finally, the results of this study and several previous unpublished reports strongly indicate
that application of a bio-stimulant such as ComCat ® , in combination with an optimum
nitrogen regime, can result in the improvement of yield under glasshouse conditions. In future
research attention should be given to the combined effect of ComCat ® and other macro-nutrients,
as well as the potential to decrease fertilizer applications when a bio-stimulant is
applied in combination, under field conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-09062005-080403 |
| Date | 06 September 2005 |
| Creators | Alam, MD. Jahangir |
| Contributors | Prof JC Pretorius |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-09062005-080403/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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