Efficacy of Boron as Foliar Feeding on Yield and Quality Attributes of Maize (Zea mays L.)

Boron being an essential micronutrient plays a vital role in improving crop productivity and quality.Therefore a field study was conducted at agronomic research area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, during spring season 2014, to evaluate the effect of boron as foliar application on yield and quality of maize.The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three repeats.There were nine treatments in the experiment including a control treatment, four treatments of foliar sprays of 0.5% borax and four treatments of water sprays (without borax) with different time intervals.Statistical analysis revealed that use of boron significantly affected maize yield and quality and the application of boron with three foliar sprays of 0.5% borax had significant positive effect on most of yield contributing parameters, giving plant height (217.00 cm), cob length (15.81 cm), cob diameter (6.10 cm), cob weight (147.00 g), number of grains per cob (481.00),1000 grain weight (333 g), grain yield (5.26 t/ha), biological yield (14.75 t/ha) and harvest index (35.66%).However in case of quality, four foliar sprays of 0.5% borax displayed better results by producing higher seed protein (10.06%) and oil contents (4.72%), respectively.From the results of experiment it can be concluded that three foliar sprays of 0.5% boron triggers yield attributes while four foliar sprays of 0.5% boron encourages qualitatively to maize crop.