Evaluation of inorganic and organic fertilizers and biostimulants in corn (Zea mays L.) productivity

Abstract

Use of biostimulants has recently increased as these products are increasing the sustainability of the crop production systems. For this reason, a field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of these products in corn productivity. This BSc thesis aims to present the evaluation of the effects of inorganic and organic fertilizers and biostimulants on corn (Zea mays L.) productivity. Five treatments (T1 το T5) were applied in the experimental field with different amounts of organic and inorganic fertilizers. Also, inorganic fertilizers were applied in different ways (linear and spread application) in the plots. The collected data were statistically analyzed using the JMP16 software. Results have shown that there were statistically significant differences among the treatments. However, the study showed that the different way of ground fertilizer application affected the yield and caused an increase of it. Also, the production cost of T4 treatment which received the control granular fertilizers followed by two applications of foliar biostimulants (Myr- Micro and Auxym) was lower than the others. The major conclusion is that using the methods of sustainable and precision agriculture can help farmers have lower cost of production with equal or better results with conventional agriculture.