LAUSR

Abstract This study was performed to study the effects of farmyard manure (zero (M1), 20 (M2) t ha−1) and nano-fertilizers [control (n1), Mn (n2), Fe (n3), Zn (n4)] on sunflower. Traits days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, leaf number, leaf area, plant height, achene yield and harvest index were measured.Treatment by trait (TT) analysis using biplot analysis was used to determine which treatment was best and for what trait which were generated using the standardized values of the traits means. Results showed that the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) were used to create a two-dimensional TT biplot that accounted percentages of 94% of sums of squares of interaction. The most important vertex treatment in polygon of TT biplot was M2n4 (application of 20 tonnes ha−1 manure and Zn nano-micronutrient) which indicated high performance in leaf number, leaf area, plant height, achene yield and harvest index. The identification of ideal treatment, the treatment that is most favorable treatment among all treatments, showed that the M2n4 might be used in selecting superior traits and it can be considered as the candidate treatment. Finally, nano-fertilizer could increase crop yields and improve the efficiency of manure application. The results of this investigation showed that application of nanoparticles may alleviates the adverse environmental factors and improve the sunflower performance and the integrated application of organic manure and nano-micronutrients is more effective.