Enhancing productivity of low land rice through silicon nutrition

A field experiment was conducted in clay loam soil belonging to Kondal series (Vertisols- Typic Haplusterts) during 2017 with an objective of studying the effect of foliar and soil application of silicon on growth, yield, nutrient uptake and their availability in rice var. ADT 43. The treatments consisted of T1- Control- (RDF 120:32:32 N, P2O5, K2O kg ha-1), T2 - 2 ml L-1 Si, T3 - 4 ml L-1 Si and T4 - 8 ml L-1 Si, T5 -1.63 kg available Si ha-1 (5 t LFA ha-1), T6 - 3.26 kg available Si ha-1 (10 t LFA ha-1), T7 - 4.89 kg available Si ha-1 (15 t LFA ha-1), T8 - 1.63 kg available Si ha-1 (5 t LFA ha-1) + T4, T9 - 3.26 kg available Si ha-1 (10 t LFA ha-1) + T3 and T10 - 4.89 kg available Si ha-1 (15 t LFA ha-1) + T2. All the treatments received uniform dose of NPK (120:32:32 N: P2O5: K2O kg ha-1). The treatments T2, T3, T4 received foliar spray of silicon, T5, T6, T7 received soil application of silicon and T8, T9, T10 received foliar plus soil application of silicon. The results revealed the positive and significant performance of rice to foliar, soil application of silicon and their combinations in terms of growth, yield, nutrient uptake and availability over control. The impact of treatments on the performance of rice was high and well pronounced when foliar spray of silicon supplied through a formulation named OSABBB was resorted compared to soil application of silicon through lignite fly ash (LFA) and their combinations. The highest uptake and availability of nutrients was again noticed in T4 (Foliar spray of silicon @ 8 ml L-1 + RDF) which was comparable with T3 (Foliar spray of silicon @ 4 ml L-1 + RDF) and T2 (Foliar spray of silicon @ 2 ml L-1 + RDF).Soilapplicationandfoliar spray of silicon was comparable with foliar spray of silicon @ 2 ml L-1 for certain parameters. When the effect of treatments on the performance of rice was compartmentalized, it was clearly expressed that on an average the foliar spray of silicon caused 18.4 per cent increase followed by foliar + soil application (15.4%) and soil application (10.3 %) over control.