Exogenous foliar application of FeSO4 on enrichment of iron in rice grain and yield

A pot experiment was conducted at Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, TNAU, Coimbatore during 2019 with rice var. CO 51 to study the impact of foliar nutrition of FeSO4 on the enrichment of rice grain iron content and yield. The experiment was a factorial completely randomized design with two factors viz., a) levels of FeSO4 (Five levels viz., Water spray - control, 0.5% FeSO4, 0.75% FeSO4, 1.0% FeSO4 and 1.5% FeSO4) along with 0.1 % citric acid and b) Spray at different growth stages of rice (14 stages viz., Panicle initiation, Flowering, Milking, Dough, Panicle initiation + Flowering, Panicle initiation + Milking, Panicle initiation + Dough, Flowering + Milking, Flowering + Dough, Milking + Dough, Panicle initiation + Flowering + Milking, Panicle initiation + Flowering + Milking, Panicle initiation + Milking + Dough, Panicle initiation + Flowering + Milking + Dough). The result revealed that foliar application of ferrous sulphate at various concentrations sprayed at different growth stages caused a significant increase in rice grain and straw yields besides, enrichment of iron in rice grain over control (water spray). The Foliar spray of 1.5 % FeSO4 + 0.1% CA four times i.e., Panicle initiation + Flowering + Milking + Dough recorded significantly highest grain yield (29.10 g pot-1), straw yield (41.11 g pot-1) and grain iron uptake (61.20 µg pot-1) which is 66, 49 and 190 per cent increase over water spray respectively. However, it was on par with FeSO4 at 1.0 % along with 0.1% CA sprayed at all the four growth stages.