Effect of Phospho Enriched Compost and Fertility Levels on Chemical Pools of Phosphorus and Productivity of Maize Zea mays L in Typic Haplustepts

Abstract

newline A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2018 and 2019 at Instructional Farm (Agronomy), Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur (Rajasthan) to study the Effect of Phospho Enriched Compost and Fertility Levels on Chemical Pools of Phosphorus and Productivity of Maize (Zea mays L.) in Typic Haplustepts . The experiment was laid out according to factorial Randomized Block Design with three replications. The treatments consisting of four levels of enriched compost (control, 2, 4 and 6 t ha-1) and four levels of fertility (control, 50% RDF + foliar spray of Zn at0.5%, 75% RDF + foliar spray of Zn at0.5% and 100% RDF + foliar spray of Zn at0.5% kg ha-1) were applied to the maize var. PEHM-2 as soil application with uniform application of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as per recommended doses. The main findings of investigation are summarized as: newline1. The increasing levels of phospho enriched compost application increased significantly the plant height at harvest, cob per plant, cob length, weight of cob, number of grains per cob, test weight, grain yield, stover yield and biological yield as well as content and uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, iron, manganese and copper in grain and stover, protein content in grain and net returns as compared to control. The pH, electrical conductivity and bulk density of soil decreased whereas, organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, particle density, water holding capacity, porosity, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, iron, manganese and copper content, alkaline phosphate activity, dehydrogenase activity, soil microbial biomass carbon, bacteria population, fungi population and actinomycetes population, chemical pools of phosphorus viz. extractable-P, total-P, organic- P, saloid bound-P, aluminium bound-P, iron bound-P, calcium bound-P, reductant soluble-P, iron + aluminium bound-P, carbonate bound-P, occluded- P in soil at harvest stage of crop ware increased significantly with increasing levels of phospho enriched com