Effect of humic acid and fulvic acid based liquid and foliar fertilizers on the yield of wheat crop

Abstract

An organic-mineral liquid fertigation fertilizer containing humic acid, nitrogen (N)–phosphorus (P)–potassium (K), zinc (Zn), sulfur (S), manganese (Mn) and a liquid foliar fertilizer consisting of fulvic acid and gibberellic acids were formulated and applied to wheat. The purpose of this study was to develop an efficient and cost effective liquid and foliar fertilizer and compare their potential with commercially available urea and DAP. The fulvic acid and humic acids were obtained by alkaline extraction of lignite coal. All the treatments were significant over the control. The application of the liquid fertigation fertilizer and liquid foliar fertilizer along with 50 kg of urea per acre showed the best results biological yield (grain plus straw yield). It was found that the highest yield was obtained in T₆ treatment and the second best results were obtained with T₂ treatment, but has a high cost, while treatment T₆ was the most significant economical and yielded a high income when compared to other treatments.

Keywords:

• alkaline extraction
• fulvic acid
• gibberellic acid
• humic acid
• lignite

Acknowledgment

We are grateful of Tariq Nawaz of the Nuclear Institute of Food and Agriculture, NIFA, Peshawar for his kind support both for providing chemicals and for providing suggestion in the field study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.