A comparative evaluation of the effects of seed invigoration treatments with precursor zinc salt and nano-sized zinc oxide (ZnO) particles on vegetative growth, grain yield, and quality characteristics of Zea mays

Journal of Analytical Science and Technology

Table 4 Mean effect of DAS, seed treatments, and concentration of Zn-source on soil nutrient content in maize crop (variety PMH-1) grown under field conditions

Sources	N (kg ha⁻¹)	K (kg ha⁻¹)	P (kg ha⁻¹)	Zn (mg ha⁻¹)
Days after sowing (DAS)
35	170.44a	136.91a	18.32a	1.022a
120	162.03 b	126.09b	17.44b	0.739b
Seed treatment
Priming	157.50 b	131.36a	15.084b	0.922b
Coating	167.97 a	131.64a	17.68a	1.041a
Zn-source concentration (mg L⁻¹)
0	150.35 e	124.39d	16.51d	0.918d
ZnSO₄_20	155.30 d	129.12c	17.33c	0.911e
ZnSO₄_40	159.29 c	129.80c	17.26c	0.925c
ZnONPs 20	167.21 b	134.08b	18.73b	1.055b
ZnONPs 40	169.02 a	140.12a	19.09a	1.0991a

ANOVA results
Source	DF
DAS	1	70,201.657***	1755.977***	518.263***	3.528***
Treatment	1	49,530.520***	1.229*	318.136***	0.210***
DAS*Treatment	1	317.860***	7.079**	0.142*	0.004***
Concentration	4	7847.062***	420.265***	117.935***	0.093***
DAS*Concentration	4	2445.266***	7.852***	11.176***	0.003***
Treatment*Concentration	4	6356.658***	143.180***	14.550***	0.053***
DASTreatmentConcentration	4	1162.322***	10.150***	2.651***	0.043***

Means within the sub-factor followed by the same letter in a column are not significantly different at p ≤ 0.05 according to pair-wise comparison of least square means
* = p ≤ 0.05, ** = p ≤ 0.01, *** = p ≤ 0.001, ns not significant