Zinc and boron micronutrient fertilization on the growth and physiological attributes of sunflower in rice-sunflower cropping sequence.

A field experiment was conducted at Experimental Farm, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar, Tamilnadu during summer season of 2014-15 to study the growth and physiological attributes of sunflower as influenced by soil and foliar fertilization of Zn and B. The experiment comprised of 12 treatment combinations which includes recommend dose of fertilizer (RDF) as control and RDF along with Zn and B soil and foliar fertilization at different stages of crop growth. From the experimental result, it could be concluded that soil application of micronutrients ZnSO4 25kg ha -1, borax 5kg ha-1 and foliar fertilization of ZnSO4 at the rate of 0.5 percent at star bud stage and borax 0.2 percent at ray floret stage was the optimal agronomic micronutrient management practice for obtaining higher values of growth attributes viz., plant height, days to fifty percent flowering, dry matter production, leaf area index and crop growth rate.