Comparison of the effect of liquid humic fertilizers on yield of maize genotypes in Ardabil region

Abstract

In order to investigate the response of maize genotypes against the  application of two types of liquid humic fertilizers (derived from peat and  leonardite), an experiment was conducted as factorial based on completely  randomized block design with three replications. The main factor was included three conditions (application of peat based and leonardite based humic  fertilizer, without the application of humic fertilizer) whereas the sub-factor  included six maize genotypes. Results indicate that there was a significant  difference between experimental conditions in terms of grain yield at 1% and biological yield at 5% probability levels. Results from mean comparison  indicate that ZP677 had the highest (20.89 ton/ha) biological yield, whereas OS 499 had the lowest (16.93 ton/ha). Application of leonardite based liquid humic fertilizer proved to be more productive than the two other conditions. This humic fertilizer produced the highest values for biological yield (21.99 ton/ha) and grain yield (7.09 ton/ha).

Key words: Maize, humic, fertilizer, yield.