Foliar Micro-nutrition of Vegetable Crops - A Critical Review

Abstract

Foliar Micro-nutrition is the application of micronutrients to plants by spraying directly onto their leaves. Although it is not economical to spray macronutrients and micronutrients through foliar spraying, researchers prefer soil application for macronutrients and foliar applications of micronutrients. Several researches have demonstrated that the method which is used to deliver the required micronutrient in appropriate concentration to improve nutrient status along with increased yield and quality potential are adapted by combining applications of FeSO4 at a dose of 0.2%, Calcium nitrate at 0.2%, Boron at 0.1% and ZnSO4 at 0.2% has revealed a 51% increase as compared to control in potato. Application of ZnSO4 (0.4%) and ZnSO4 (0.6%) provides significant impact on growth and yield characteristic of Chilli; Zinc Sulfate (0.5%) and Borax (0.5%) also shows better result on the number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter and yield per plant in Eggplant. Applying ZnSO4 (0.5%) shows better results on plant height, weight of head and yield of head in cabbage cultivations. Combined application of Boron (100 ppm) + Molybdenum (50 ppm) along with 60 kg/fed of Nitrogen. The results showed increased 38.02% on curd yield of cauliflower over control. A study reveals that application of (0.5%) Zn+ (0.1%) B along with 75 kg/ha of potassium in combination showed 31.73% increases yield of watermelon. Application of boron at 0.25% and zinc 0.5% showed a 31.17% increase in the total onion yield. The combined application of MgSO4 (0.5%), MnSO4 (0.5%), FeSO4 (0.5%) and ZnSO4 (0.5%) has increased yield of okra 31.8% over control. In general this critical review lays an emphasis from the review point of that micronutrients have been found to show satisfactory results than control conditions and has an immense potential in vegetable production to increase yield attributes.