Comparative Influence of Two Organic Fertilizers on Growth, Yield Attributes and Chlorophyll Content of Six Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Genotypes

Abstract

Sustainable intensification of cereal production increasingly relies on microbial and organicinputs that can partly substitute for energy-intensive chemical fertilizers. The present studyevaluated the comparative effect of two commercial organic fertilizers, Bio-Elixir (a sapropel-and peat-based bio-stimulant) and APSA-80 (an all-purpose spray adjuvant), on themorphological, yield-contributing and physiological (chlorophyll) traits of six bread-wheatgenotypes (K-7903, HUW-234, UP-2425, Raj-3765, K-9644 and PBW-373). A field experimentwas laid out in a two-factor (genotype x fertilizer) randomized design at the experimental farmof Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, with an unfertilized control. Plant height, spike length, grains spike-1, tillers plant-1, grain yield plant-1 andchlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), andtreatment means were compared using the critical difference (CD) at p = 0.05. Bio-Elixir (T1)produced the highest mean values for all measured traits and significantly (p = 0.05) improvedplant height, spike length, grains spike-1, tillers plant-1, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyllrelative to the control and to APSA-80 (T2). The increase in grain yield plant-1 under Bio-Elixir(+6.3 % over control) was positive but did not reach statistical significance (F = 3.33; p = 0.078),whereas genotypic differences were highly significant for every trait. Among genotypes, K-9644and K-7903 were the most responsive. The findings indicate that Bio-Elixir is the more effectiveof the two products for enhancing wheat vegetative vigour and photosynthetic pigments, andreinforce the value of integrating quality organic bio-inputs into sustainable wheat-production systems.