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Phosphorus-induced zinc deficiency in maize (Zea mays L.) on a calcareous chernozem soil

Csathó, Péter and Árendás, Tamás and Szabó, Anita and Sándor, Renáta and Ragályi, Péter and Pokovai, Klára and Tóth, Zoltán and Kremper, Rita (2019) Phosphorus-induced zinc deficiency in maize (Zea mays L.) on a calcareous chernozem soil. Agrokémia és Talajtan, 68 (S). pp. 40-52. ISSN 0002-1873

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Abstract

Abstract A long-term fertilizer experiment was set up on a calcareous chernozem soil with a wheat-maize-maize-wheat crop rotation, as part of the National Long-Term Fertilization Experiments (NLTFE) Network, set up with the same experimental pattern under different soil and agro-climatic conditions in Hungary. The effect of P fertilization on the soil, on maize yields, and on leaf P and Zn contents in the flowering stage were examined in the trials. In certain years, foliar zinc fertilizer was applied, in order to prove that yield losses due to P-induced Zn deficiency can be compensated by Zn application. Calcium-ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and 60% potassium chloride were used as NPK, and Zn-hexamine (in 1991) and Zn-sulphate (in 2006) as foliar Zn fertilizers. In the years since 1970, averaged over 36 maize harvests, treatments N<sub>3</sub>P<sub>1</sub>K<sub>1</sub> and N<sub>4</sub>P<sub>1</sub>K<sub>1</sub>, involving annual rates of 150 to 200 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> N, 100 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> K<sub>2</sub>O and 50 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>, gave the highest yields (8.3 t ha<sup>−1</sup> grain on average). As the years progressed, treatments exceeding 50 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> a year were found to have an increasingly unfavourable effect. Based on the yields of ten cycles (36 maize years), variants P<sub>2</sub>, P<sub>3</sub> and P<sub>4</sub> resulted in 16–30–45 t ha<sup>−1</sup> grain yield losses in comparison to variant P<sub>1</sub>. Investigations carried out in 1987, 1991 and 2006 showed that the leaf Zn content on plots with more than 150 to 200 mg kg<sup>−1</sup> AL (ammonium lactate)-soluble P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> (over 30 mg kg<sup>−1</sup> Olsen-P) dropped below 15 mg kg<sup>−1</sup> and the P/Zn ratio rose to above 150 or even 250 in the flowering stage in two years. As a consequence of P-induced Zn deficiency, maize grain yields fell by 2 t ha<sup>−1</sup> in two of the years investigated and by almost 5 t ha<sup>−1</sup> in one year at the P<sub>4</sub> level (200 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> year<sup>−1</sup>), in comparison to the P<sub>1</sub> variant (50 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> year<sup>−1</sup>). When 1.2 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> foliar Zn was applied in the form of zinc hexamine, 1.7 to 1.8 t ha<sup>−1</sup> maize grain yield surpluses were obtained on plots with higher P levels in 1991. In 2006 the P-induced Zn deficiency caused unexpectedly high (almost 5 t ha<sup>−1</sup>) grain yield losses on plots with higher P levels, so the maize grain yield surpluses obtained in response to 1.2 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> foliar Zn application, in the form of zinc sulphate, were as high as 1.6 to 3.8 t ha<sup>−1</sup>. The data clearly indicate that maize yields are impeded by both poor and excessive P status. Soil and plant analysis may be useful tools for monitoring the nutritional status of plants.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: S Agriculture / mezőgazdaság > S1 Agriculture (General) / mezőgazdaság általában > S590 Soill / Talajtan
Depositing User: Ágnes Sallai
Date Deposited: 28 Feb 2020 06:48
Last Modified: 03 Mar 2023 10:28
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/106725

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