Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted on a sandy clay loam soil to monitor the response of rice crop to model based applied B fertilizer. For this purpose, B adsorption isotherm of the soil was constructed at the Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan during 2006-07. Adsorption process was executed by equilibrating 2.5g soil in 0.01M CaCl2 solution containing different B concentrations (0, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10 and 15 mg). Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption models were applied to the data to check the sorption of B on sandy clay loam soil. Freundlich model showed better fit of the sorption (r2=0.99) data than Langmuir model (r2= 0.88). Ten B treatments (0, 0.28, 0.79, 1.27, 1.74, 2.21, 2.64, 3.10, 3.32, 3.54 kg/ha) were applied with recommended N, P and K doses. Boron was applied at rice transplanting time as basal dose. The data indicated that grains per panicle, 1000-grain weight and paddy yield responded positively to fertilizer B but vegetative growth i.e. plant height, tillering and total biomass did not respond significantly to B application. B rate of 1.74 kg per hectare (T4) proved better for numbelr of grains (164.7/panicle), 1000-grain weight (21.07 g) and paddy yield (3.2 Mg/ha). Concentration of boron in both rice straw and paddy increased with B application but there was no effect of B on NPK concentration of straw and paddy. These results are very encouraging suggesting that for a particular soil, B adsorption isotherm need to be constructed for site specific fertilizer B application.
Page(s):
303-314
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Journal of Agricultural Research, Volume: 48, Issue: 3, Year: 2010