Sulphur and Chlorine Effects on Yield and Quality in Fresh Corn
Tinashe Zenda
North China Key Laboratory for Crop Germplasm Resources of Education Ministry, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, P.R. China AND Department of Production Planning and Operations, Agricultural Marketing Authority, 8 Leman Road, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Daxuan Yao
North China Key Laboratory for Crop Germplasm Resources of Education Ministry, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, P.R. China.
Huijun Duan *
North China Key Laboratory for Crop Germplasm Resources of Education Ministry, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, P.R. China.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: To investigate sulphur (S) and chlorine (Cl) effects on fresh ear yield, yield components and quality in fresh corn.
Study Design: A 3 × 1 × 3 field experiment was set up in RCBD, with three replications. This was integrated with laboratory experiments.
Place and Duration of Study: San Fen Chang Experiment Station, and Crop Genetics and Breeding laboratory of Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China, between March 2016 and May 2017.
Methodology: Treatments comprised Control (S0, Cl0), S (38 kg ha-1) and Cl (84 kg ha-1); and three hybrids included TDN21 (sweet), JKN2000 (waxy) and JKN928 (sweet and waxy). Total fresh ear yield was calculated from the measured components; quality evaluation focused on taste parameters (relative sweetness, aroma, texture, peel thickness and viscosity), grain nutritional composition (crude protein, starch, fat and lysine contents) and external appearance of ears; whilst Barium sulphur turbidity method was used to assess grain sulphur content.
Results: Significant (p≤0.05) total fresh ear yield ha-1 increases of 18.12%, 17.53% and 6.58% in TDN21, JKN2000 and JKN928 cultivars, respectively, were realized as S influenced some yield components (average fresh ear diameter, ear length and ear weight) evaluated. However, Cl effect was insignificant. Both S and Cl significantly (p≤0.05) improved the kernel taste by increasing relative sweetness and flavour in all cultivars. Additionally, sulphur significantly increased crude protein (CP) in TDN21, whilst chlorine decreased CP by 2.78% to 6.05% in all cultivars. Sulphur significantly increased crude starch by 4.31% and 7.56% in TDN21 and JKN2000, respectively, whereas Cl significantly increased crude fat by 3.43%, 15.17% and 6.60% in cultivars 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Furthermore, sulphur enhanced harvested ears` external appearance in TDN21 and JKN2000 cultivars, contributing to quality improvement.
Conclusion: Sulphur has profound effects on enhancing both yield and quality, whilst chlorine is prominent on quality in fresh corn.
Keywords: Sulphur, chlorine, yield, quality, fresh corn.