Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Growth, Yield and Nutrient Uptake as Influenced by Different Levels of Potassium Fertilizer in a Saline soil

Application of higher doses of K fertilizer significantly affected the growth and yield parameters of rice. The increasing doses of K fertilizer significantly increased the number of tillers hill-1 , the number of panicle  hill-1, filled grain panicle-1, 1000 grain weight, the grain yield, straw yield and the biological yield of rice except plant height and unfilled grain panicle-1. Though the plant height increased in some of the treatments compared to control, statistically no positive  influence was found by the higher K treatments. Similarly, the number of unfilled grain panicle-1also found to be decreased along with the K treatments though statistically it was insignificant. Apart from S the N, P and K content in plant was significantly increased along with the K treatments. With the application of K fertilizer K+/ Na+ ratio of plant significantly decreased that makes the nutrients more available to plant. Hence a positive influence was also attained in the nutrients uptake (N, P, K and S) by rice due to the application of higher K doses. So, it can be concluded that higher doses of K fertilization (120 kg ha-1) with could have improved the rice yield in saline soil

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