Increasing Flax Crop Performance and Oil Content with Phosphorus and Foliar Zinc Supplementations

Phosphorous (P) and foliar Zinc (Zn) nutrition plays crucial role in growth, yield and quality of Flax. In order to investigate P, foliar Zn and their interaction effect on Flax (Linum Usitatissimum. L.) yield and yield components, a field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Research Farm, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar during 2015–2016. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Experiment contains four levels of P viz. (control, 30, 60, 90 kg ha⁻¹) along with four concentration of Zn in foliar form (control 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 kg ha⁻¹) and their interaction on growth, morphological characteristics, yields and oil content of Flax. Foliar Zn was applied before flowering stage of flax. The fertilizer DAP was used as source of P while ZnSo₄ was used as a source of Zn. Both P and Zn application significantly (P ≤ 0.05) improved the plant height, leaf area, days till flowering and maturity, branches plant⁻¹, capsules plant⁻¹, seeds capsule⁻¹, thousand grains weight, grains yield, biological yield, harvest index, oil contents compared to control. Emergence m⁻² was not influenced by any P and Zn concentration. Interaction of P and Zn significantly (P ≤ 0.05) influenced plant height, capsules per plant, grain yield, biological and harvest index, but it had non-significant effect on other parameter under the study. Phosphorus application beyond 60 kg ha⁻¹ exhibited non-significant (P ≤ 0.05) effect on the growth and yield attributes of Flax. Therefore, for producing optimum seed yield and oil contents of flax, it is suggested that 60 kg ha⁻¹ P and 2.5 kg ha⁻¹ Zn in foliar form before flowering stage should be applied for better productivity and oil contents. Furthermore, result showed that highest yield was obtained from 90 kg ha⁻¹ P and 3.5 kg ha⁻¹ Zn foliar spray, therefore recommended to the farmer community for better growth and production of flax.