Effect of Foliar Application of Iron and Zinc from Chelate and Sulfate Sources on Growth and Yield of Maize, at Dezful Province of Khuzestan

To investigate the effect of foliar application of iron and zinc from sulfate and EDTA-chelated sources on quantitaty and qualitaty of corn seed yields were compared. Thus, field experiment was carried at Dezful, using maize single cross 701 cultivar, in a randomized complete block design for one years. The experiment consisted of seven treatments: control, foliar spraying with chelate or sulfate of iron with a concentration of three mg.L-1, foliar application of sulfate or chelate of zinc with a concentration of mg.L-1, foliar application of combined sulfate or chelate of zinc and iron with a concentration of 1.5 mg.L-1 for each element. Results at the experiment showed that the effect of different foliar treatments on all factors, except cob weight and grain manganese concentration, were significant. The highest grain yield was 9520 kg.ha-1 and biological yield (37.73 ton.ha-1), in the combined foliar application of iron and zinc, was 13% increase, as compared to the control. There was no significant difference in grain yield between the two sources of iron chelate and iron sulfate. The highest concentration of iron grain was observed by using foliar application with ferrous sulfate at a concentration of 3 mg.L-1 and the highest concentration of zinc foliar application observed with zinc sulfate at a concentration of 3 mg.L-1. The highest percentage of protein content was observed by using foliar application of iron and zinc. The results of this study showed that foliar application of corn with iron and zinc increased seed yield and improves its quality. There were no significant difference between the two sources of sulfate and chelate applications, while in some cases the use of sulfate source showed better results.