Response of sweet corn (Zea mays L. saccharata Sturt) to sulphur and zinc application

A field experiment was conducted during khairf season of 2009 at Instructional Farm, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur to study the effect of sulphur and zinc nutrition on sweet corn (Zea mays L. saccharata Sturt). Graded levels of sulphur and zinc up to 45 kg S and 6 kg Zn ha⁻¹ had significant effect on dry matter accumulation at all the growth stages, growth rate at 0–20 days after sowing (DAS), leaf area index (LAI) at 40 DAS and stem diameter. However, growth rate during 20–40 DAS responded significantly up to application of 15 kg S ha⁻¹ only, and during 40–60 DAS stage, application of 45 and 60 kg S ha⁻¹ significantly improved the CGR over the control. Application of 6 kg Zn ha⁻¹, being at par with 3 kg Zn ha⁻¹ significantly increased the CGR during 40–60 DAS. Sulphur and zinc fertilization up to 45 kg and 6 kg ha⁻¹, respectively tended to increase yield attributes, green cob and green fodder yields, crude protein content in cobs and fodder, total nitrogen, sulphur and zinc uptake by plant significantly. Incremental benefit: cost ratio decreased with successive increase in sulphur and zinc levels up to 60 kg S and 9 kg Zn ha⁻¹ and the highest values i.e. 55.62 and 19.09 were recorded with 15 kg S and 3 kg Zn ha⁻¹, respectively.