The effects of late term foliar fertilization on plant nutrient contents and some quality parameters of wheat

A field experiment at Burdur province was carried out to determine the improvement possibilities of the yield and nutritional facts of wheat, which is the source of widely consumed foods. Prior the heading & flowering stage, foliar fertilization at the dose of 2 m3 ha-1 which containing 0.5% or 1.0% nitrogen as urea and 0.1% or 0.2 zinc as ZnSO4 were applied once or twice. The plants were harvested by human source when they reached full maturity, yield, thousand grain weight, the nutrient, gluten, starch and protein contents were determined. Results revealed that the individual applications of zinc or nitrogen increased the yield; however, yield values were close to control in nitrogen+zinc applied plots. Nitrogen application was the most effective on yield, which was determined that once and twice application of 1% dose of nitrogen increased the yield by 15.5%. All of the applications increased the weight of 1000 grains compared to the control. The weight of 1000 grains, which was 40.3 g in the control, reached 48.8 g by applying 0.1% dose of zinc twice. Applications caused a decrease in the nitrogen content of the grain, which was associated with the dilution of nutrients due to increased yield. The zinc content of the grain decreased with nitrogen application but zinc and zinc + nitrogen application improved zinc content significantly (P<0.05) compared to the control. The combination of zinc and nitrogen application was the most effective application in terms of zinc content. The zinc content was 43.3 mg kg-1 in the control which was increased up to 63.7 mg kg-1 with the first dose of zinc + nitrogen. Potassium, iron, manganese and copper contents were not affected statistically by applications (P>0.05). Protein and gluten contents decreased depending on applications in accordance with nitrogen content. Starch content increased depending on the applications.