The Role of Fertilization with Nano-Zinc Oxide on the Growth and Yield of Wheat in Calcareous Desert Soil

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of the source and level of addition of nano-zinc oxide on the growth and yield of IPA-99 wheat cultivar grown in desert soil conditions and compare it with regular zinc fertilizers. Fertilizers were sprayed on the soil, the nano-fertilizers included three sources of zinc, nano-metallic zinc oxide (ZnnO), zinc-chelated nano-fertilizer ZnnDTPA, and nano-zinc humate (ZnnHA). The nano-fertilizers were added at levels of 1 and 2 kg ha-1. Whereas the regular zinc fertilizers, ZnO, ZnDTPA, and ZnHA, were added at a level of 4 and 8 kg ha-1 in addition to the control treatment without addition. After harvest, the grain yield, straw yield, and the concentration of zinc, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium in the wheat grain were estimated. The results showed that zinc nano fertilizers had a significant effect in increasing the studied plant traits compared to the control treatment, Zinc humate nano fertilizer gave the highest increase in all studied plant traits among the nano-fertilizers, as it achieved an increase in grain yield, straw yield, zinc, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium concentrations in grains by 45.36%, 57.01%, 409.43%, 42.36%, 98.20%, and 38.56 % respectively over the control treatment. The zinc nano-fertilizers had a significant effect on increasing the yield of grains and the concentration of nitrogen and potassium in the grains compared to the regular zinc fertilizers. While the results showed there was no significant difference in straw yield and the concentration of zinc and phosphorous in the grains between nano and normal zinc fertilizer.