Effect of bio- and chemical fertilizers, separately and in different combinations, on the growth of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) was studied to reduce the chemical fertilizers used, maximizing their use efficiency and to obtain highest growth and productive parameters. The biofertilizers used as inoculums for seeds treatment of sunflower cv. Geza 1 were Azospirillum (nitrogen fixing bacteria, N.F.B.) and Bacillus polymyxa (phosphate dissolving bacteria, P.D.B.) and their mixture. Both bacterial inoculants and their mixture show an increase in growth parameters, nutrients content and yield when compared to the control (full dose of NPK chemical fertilization). The result reveals that biofertilization treatments of Azospirillum + Bacillus plus 100% chemical fertilizers produced the highest values in all growth and yield parameters compared with the control (full dose of chemical fertilization alone). The results also indicated that biofertilization, beside its ability to improve the nutrient supply in the soil, also increases the efficiency of added chemical fertilization.

ornamental --- flowering date --- Azospirillum --- Bacillus --- yield parameters --- Helianthus

In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to evaluate the genetic variability and correlation of different contributing characters associated with grain yield per plant in wheat. Fourteen genotypes were grown in Randomized Block Design with three replications and evaluated for ten characters. Analysis of variance was done from the mean data obtained in each character and correlation and path coefficient analysis were carried out. Highly significant differences and adequate genetic variability were observed among the genotypes for all the ten selected characters. In this context, it was found that numbers of effective tillers per plant and grain yield per plant were characterized by high GCV, high heritability and high genetic advance and would be effective for selection. Correlation studies and path coefficient analysis revealed the importance of number of effective tillers per plant, number of spiklet per panicle, number of grains per panicle and harvest index for improving grain yield per plant as they had positive direct effects on yield and these traits were also significantly and positively correlated with grain yield per plant. So for increasing grain yield per plant a wheat genotype should have more number of effective tillers per plant, more number of spikelet per panicle, more number of grains per panicle and high harvest index value because these characters were positively associated with grain yield and resemble high estimates of heritability along with high genetic advance. In this regard the importance of large panicle length and more 1000 grain weight could not be under mined for yield improvement.

characters --- heritability --- genetic parameters --- path analysis --- Correlation --- yield20531-RJET-