Many have reported that application of Silicon (Si) can alleviate environmental stress and increase grain yield of maize plants under stresses. This study aimed to examine the effects of adding organic or silicate fertilizer on several varieties of maize in rainfed area during a dry season, by conducting field experiment designed with Randomized Complete Block Design testing two treatment factors, i.e. maize varieties (V1= Bisi-2, V2= Srikandi, V3= Pioneer-27) and fertilizer combinations (F1= NPK only, F2= NPK+organic, F3= NPK+silicate). Results indicated that there were significant effects of fertilizer combinations and varieties on growth and yield of several maize varieties, in which the mean values were highest in maize plants fertilized with NPK+silicate fertilizers, except harvest index. Among the varieties, Pioneer-27 (hybrid) yielded the highest followed by Srikandi (open-pollinated) and Bisi-2 (hybrid) yielded the lowest grain weight per plant. However, there were interaction effects of the treatment factors, meaning that there were different responses between varieties of maize to application of organic or silicate fertilizer in addition to NPK fertilizer in terms of plant height, AGR (average growth rate) of plant height and dry grain yield per plant. Grain yield per plant of Pioneer-27 could be increased with application of organic (150.79 g/plant) or silicate (189.43 g/plant) compared with NPK only (133.99 g/plant), while that of Srikandi and Bisi-2 could only be increased by addition of silicate (113.83 g/plant in Srikandi and 103 g/plant in Bisi-2) compared with NPK only (93.77 g/plant in Srikandi and 82.59 g/plant in Bisi-2).
Addition of silicate or organic fertilizer increases growth and yield of several varieties of maize in East Lombok, Indonesia