EFFECT OF SODICITY AND NITROGEN LEVELS ON DRY MATTER
YIELD, PROTEIN AND NUTRIENT UPTAKE IN MAIZE
NIRANJAN SINGH*, S. K. SHARMA, ROHTAS KUMAR, RAJPAUL AND SATYENDER SINGH
Department of Soil Science
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : nnirajan1234@rediffmail.com)
(Received : 14 August 2014; Accepted : 30 December 2014)
SUMMARY
The present study was carried out at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. The experiment was conducted on a sandy loam soil having initial pH (1 : 2) 8.21 and ESP 7.88 collected from Research Area of Department of Soil Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Soils of different ESP (15, 30 and 45) were prepared by adding desired amount of NaHCO3 to this soil on saturation basis. The observed ESP were 7.88, 13.86, 31.15 and 43.79, respectively. The first experiment was conducted in screen house to study the effects of different ESP levels (control, 15, 30 and 45) on forage maize crop with fixed 80 kg N/ha. In second experiment, the effect of four N levels (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg N/ha) at 45 ESP level was studied on maize forage crop. The results revealed that the dry matter yield of maize decreased with increasing ESP levels (control, 15, 30 and 45). The maximum (38.82 g/pot) and minimum (15.09 g/pot) dry matter yield of maize were observed at control and 45 ESP, respectively. The plant height and protein content also decreased with increasing ESP levels. The uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S decreased with increasing ESP levels. The reduction in N uptake over control was 10.83, 46.77 and
65.22 per cent at 15, 30 and 45 ESP levels respectively. Non-significant difference was observed in Na uptake by maize, within control and 15 ESP treatments, whereas it decreased significantly with further increase in ESP levels, over 15 ESP. The uptake of micronutrients (Zn, Cu, Mn and Fe) in the maize crop decreased with increasing ESP levels. The maximum uptake was observed at control, whereas minimum at an ESP of 45. The results of experiment conducted on different levels of N (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg/ha) on different forage crops at a constant ESP level (45 ESP) indicated that dry matter yield increased with increasing N levels. The maximum dry matter yield (17.11 g/pot) at 120 kg N/ha and minimum (7.83 g/pot) were obtained at N control in maize. The plant height and protein content in these crops also increased with increasing N levels. Effect of different levels of N (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg/ha) on various forage crops at a constant ESP level (45 ESP) indicated that uptake of nutrients N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, S, Zn, Cu, Mn and Fe by maize increased with increasing N levels. The uptake of nutrients was found minimum at N control and maximum at 120 kg N/ha. The results of the experiment conducted on four ESP levels (control, 15, 30 and 45) soil and four N levels (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg/ha) indicated that overall dry matter yield of sorghum decreased with increasing ESP levels and increased with increasing N levels.
Key words: ESP, nitrogen, nutrients uptake, dry matter yield, protein content, maize