WHEAT YIELDING COMPONENTS RESPONSE TO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF FERTILIZER-N APPLICATION TIME AND DECAPITATION STRESS

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) if cut before boot stage can be used for both forage and grain purposes, however, it needs better nutrient management along with other agronomic practices to reduce the possible loss in grain yield. A field experiment was conducted on imposing decapitation stress in wheat as compare to no cut under different N levels and its application time to assess the response of yield crop and yield components. The decapitation stress was imposed through cutting of foliage at 60 d after wheat sowing. Three levels of nitrogen (100, 150 and 200 kg ha^-1) were applied as full dose at sowing (M1), full dose at 2nd irrigation (M2) and split (M3) as half each at sowing and with 2nd irrigation to cut (C1) or no cut (C0) wheat. Treatments were arranged in randomized complete block (RCB) design with four replications having a plot size of 3 m x 5 m. Wheat cultivar Fakhre Sarhad was planted on 1st November 2004 with seed rate of 120 kg ha^-1. The experiment was conducted on well developed, deep silty clay loam alkaline soil (pH = 7.7 -8.2) at Agricultural Research Farm (Malakandher), KP Agricultural University Peshawar during 2004-05. Compared to control, fertilizer-N supplementation produced more spikes m^-2 (349), grains spike^-1 (44), thousand grains weight (37.21 g), grain yield (2985 kg ha^-1), biological yield (10039 kg ha^-1) and harvest index (37 %) as compare to control. Whereas the decapitation stress decreased spikes m^-2 (316), grains spike-1 (42), thousand grains weight (35.92 g), grain yield (2601 kg ha^-1), biological yield (9176 kg ha^-1) and harvest index by 35 % as compare to no-cut plots. Compared to control fertilizer-N levels increased spikes m^-2 (368), grains spike^-1 (46), thousand grains weight (37.89 g), grain yield (3213 kg ha^-1) and biological yield (10923 kg ha^-1. Similarly, the split application of fertilizer- N improved spikes m^-2 (353), grain spike-1 (45), grain yield (3165 kg ha^-1) and biological yield (10527 kg ha^-1) as compared to control, whereas thousand grains weight and harvest index were not affected by fertilizer-N application time. Based on the findings of this study wheat can be grown as dual purpose crop and the reduction in yielding component can be managed through increase in fertilizer-N level, through split application, half at sowing and half with 2nd irrigation.