Soil-plant micronutrients dynamics in response to integrated fertilization under wheat–soybean cropping system at Rawalakot, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

This study provided an insight on improving soil-plant micronutrients availability in response to poultry manure (PM), wheat milling residues (WMR) and urea N (UN) and their integration in wheat–soybean cropping system. The treatments were: control; poultry manure full, PM₁₀₀; wheat milling residues full, WMR₁₀₀; urea N full, UN₁₀₀; PM half and WMR half, PM₅₀+WMR₅₀; UN₅₀+PM₅₀; UN₅₀+WMR₅₀; UN₅₀+PM₂₅+WMR₂₅. All amendments were added at the rate or equivalent to 100 kg total N ha^–1. Results indicated that the integrated treatments increased Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn uptake of wheat by 35.7–103%, 48.4–111.1%, 85.2–267.0% and 33.8–128.2%, respectively over control. In soybean the corresponding increase in micronutrient uptake (Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) was 18.3–60.3%, 27.5–87.4%, 14.1–54.6% and 13.2–58.0% in integrated treatments. The post-harvest soil analysis indicated 2 to 3-fold increase in micronutrient content with highest values in PM₁₀₀ i.e., 2.66 mg kg⁻¹ for Cu, 14.41 mg kg⁻¹ for Fe, 18.58 mg kg⁻¹ for Mn and 2.44 mg kg⁻¹ for Zn, respectively. The results showed that the PM either alone or in integrated with WMR and UN can be an effective management strategy for improving micronutrient content of soil–plant.

KEYWORDS:

• Poultry manure
• wheat milling residues
• integrated nutrient management
• soil micronutrients
• nutrients uptake

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Funding

The financial assistance by The University of Poonch Rawalakot, Azad Jammu and Kashmir during this study to the first author is highly appreciated.