Nutrient use efficiency and growth analysis of wheat crop under precision nitrogen management techniques and growth regulators application

Abstract

Nitrogen occupies a significant position in plant metabolism as an essential component of proteins, which are associated with all vital and metabolic processes in the plant system. Nitrogen fertilization in wheat is more complex, and the results are more flexible than in any other field crop. The objective of this study was to determine how nitrogen dose variation interacts with growth regulators and their impact on crop lodging and the yield of wheat. The experiment was conducted during the Rabi season 2019-20 to assess these effects, involving various treatment combinations of different nitrogen doses, use of growth regulators, including precision nitrogen management using leaf color charts, GreenSeeker, and decision-support tools such as Nutrient Expert. The results showed that precision nitrogen management techniques resulted in higher harvest index and nitrogen use efficiency compared to other treatments. Balanced supply of major nutrients, viz., N, P, and K, led to better nutrient uptake compared to treatments where only nitrogenous fertilizer was applied. The use of growth regulators increased the total number of days to achieve physiological maturity, thereby increasing values of growing degree days and heliothermal units. Therefore, it is suggested that nitrogenous fertilizer alone should not be applied in wheat crops to avoid soil nutrient imbalance and potential toxicity disruptions in the food cycle.