Effect of Silicate Solubilizing Bacteria and Fly Ash on Mean Leaf Erectness of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) in Low, Medium and High Silicon Soils.

ABSTRACT

The leaf erectness is known to be one of the important factors that affect light conditions in plant population. Thereby triggers photosynthetic activity. A field experiment was carried out in low Si soil and observations made on leaf erectness at tillering stage and correlated with Si uptake and dry matter production. The leaf openness varied greatly due to application of graded levels of fly ash with and without SSB and FYM. Application of fly ash @ 100 t ha-1 with SSB and FYM registered the lowest value (16.7) which was on par with application of 50 t ha-1 fly ash +SSB and FYM. This parameter was negatively and significantly correlated with Si content (r = -0.83) and uptake (r = -0.92) in rice plant at tillering. Similarly, significant and negative correlation (r= -0.70) was observed with grain yield in loamy sand soil with low Si status. In sandy loam soil with low to medium Si status the parameter was best correlated with grain yield (r=-0.94) and negatively, significantly correlated with Si content (r =-0.55) and uptake (r=-0.82) in plant at tillering. Among the different treatments, application of SSB + FYM recorded the lowest leaf openness of 14.9 which was on par with SSB (16.4) followed by FYM (17.4) whereas control recorded the highest leaf openness of 20.0. The interaction between different main treatments and graded levels of fly ash has not rendered significant change in leaf openness under high soil Si status.