Synergic effect of sulfur and nitrogen on morpho-physiological and biochemical traits of sunflower

Abstract

Macronutrients are essential for plant growth and development because they give plants the building blocks, they need to stay healthy and do important biological processes. A completely randomized designed (CRD) pot experiment was done to find out how nitrogen and sulfur affected the morphology and biochemistry of sunflowers. There were three replicates of each treatment: N1 (0), N2 20 kg ha-1 and N3 40 kg ha-1 and sulfur S1 (0), S2 40 kg ha-1 and S3 60 kg ha-1. Sunflower growth and physiology were improved by exogenously applied sulfur and nitrogen to the plant. Root and shoot length, fresh and dry weight, number of leaves per plant, leaf area, plant height, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids, total soluble protein, and shoot calcium, potassium, and sodium ions contents all went up compared to the control conditions. Furthermore, sulfur and nitrogen have positive impacts on sunflowers' growth, ionic parameters and there was increase for anthocyanin (24.98%. and 36.66%), ascorbic acid (43.17% and 97.88%), and flavonoid (34.56%. and 112.91%) amounts with the highest levels at 60 kg ha-1 of S and 40 kg ha-1 of N, respectively. There was significant increase in photosynthetic pigments on application of Sulphur (Chl a. :19.15%, Chl b. 52.17%) and Nitrogen (chla. 20.53%, Chl b. 57.16%). Thus, applying sulfur and nitrogen externally to the plant is suggested to boost sunflower growth and chlorophyll levels at different nutritional levels.

Keywords

• nitrogen
• photosynthetic pigments
• secondary metabolites
• suplhur
• sunflower