Production potential of sunflower genotypes under varying fertility levels in Andhra Pradesh

At College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, a field trial was carried out during the rainy (kharif) season  for the year 2004-05, the main aim of the research was to analyze the Production potential of two sunflower genotypes (Morden and KBSH-1) under varying fertility levels. The results of the study revealed that, among the growth characters like plant height, number of leaves, total dry matter per plant increased with increase in the fertility levels at each growth stages. Further, the results also indicated that, increases in growth characters were significantly higher in KBSH-1 when compared to Morden. The study also focus on number of seeds per capitulum (860), test weight (45.53 g), yield per plant (31.90 g) and oil yield (516 kg/ha) were observed significant in KBSH-1 genotype over Morden. However, the study also shows that, among the different fertility levels, application of 90:60:30 kg NPK/ha resulted in significantly higher plant height, higher number of leaves per plant and phytomass per plant at different growth stages and which was on-far with the application of even higher doses (150:100:50 kg) of NPK/ha. The results related to yield, shows that, the application of 60:40:20 kg NPK/ha shown significantly higher yield and yield attributing characteristics and which was on-far with the incremental increase in fertilizer application up to 150:100:50 kg NPK/ha. Oil percentage was not much varied but maximum oil out turn (524 kg/ha) was recorded with the application of 90:60:30 kg NPK/ha.  Hence, the studies suggest that, agro-climatic zones with similar climatic situation may follow this pattern to increase the yield levels in sunflower.