International Journal of Environment and Climate Change

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2022 at the Agriculture and Horticulture Research Station, Honnavile, Shivamogga on sandy clay loam soil to study the response of maize to secondary nutrients application. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and consisted of nine treatments replicated three times. The treatments consisted of package of practice (POP) (T₁), POP + soil application of two levels of calcium, i.e., 25 and 50 kg ha^-1 through lime (T₂ and T₃), dolomite (T₄ and T₅, which amount to 15.02 and 30.04 kg ha^-1 of magnesium, respectively) and gypsum (T₆ and T₇, which amount to 19.96 and 39.91 kg ha^-1 of sulphur, respectively). Treatments T₈ and T₉ consisted of POP + combined application of all three secondary nutrients through lime, magnesium sulphate and bentonite sulphur to meet the same level of nutrient as treatments T₂ to T_7. Among the treatments, application of POP + calcium @ 25 kg ha^-1 through lime + 15.02 kg ha^-1 of Mg + 19.6 kg ha^-1 of S (T₈) showed significantly higher values for growth parameters viz., plant height (196.65 cm), leaf area (4804.70 cm²), leaf area index (5.55) total dry matter (273.80 g plant^-1) and yield parameters viz.,  cob length (16.93 cm), number of grains cob^-1 (511.08), kernel yield (6772 kg ha^-1) and stover yield (8221 kg ha^-1). Similarly the same treatment recorded significantly higher grain protein content (8.99%) compared to other treatments. However the test weight, harvest index and oil content of maize remained unaffected due the applied secondary nutrients.