Abstract

Soil nutrient management is important to maintain the constant productivity of seedling production in the nursery for successful forest restoration. This study investigated the effects of organic manure and chemical fertilizer application levels on the growth, soil properties, and nutrient concentrations of yellow poplar seedlings. One-year-old yellow poplar seedlings were treated with the combination of 3 level organic manures(0, 5 Mg/ha, 10 Mg/ha; mixture of poultry manure, cattle manure, swine manure, and sawdust) and 3 level nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium(NPK) chemical fertilizers(0, 1x(urea, <TEX>$30g/m^2$</TEX>; fused superphosphate, <TEX>$70g/m^2$</TEX>; potassium chloride, <TEX>$15g/m^2$</TEX>), 2x). Organic manure significantly increased the soil pH and the concentrations of nitrogen, available phosphorous, exchangeable potassium, calcium, and magnesium. In contrast, the NPK chemical fertilizer decreased the soil pH and exchangeable calcium concentration, did not affect the soil concentrations of nitrogen and magnesium, and increased the concentrations of available phosphorous and exchangeable potassium. Both organic manure and NPK chemical fertilizer treatments increased the seedling height, root collar diameter, and dry weight by 39% and 25%, respectively. The treatment with manure 5 Mg/ha and NPK 2x chemical fertilizer mostly increased seedling dry weight by 2.6 times more than that of the control. Compared to the effects of the fertilization treatments on the soil properties, the effects on nutrient concentrations in the leaves were relatively small. These findings indicate that organic manure that was derived from livestock byproducts and sawdust can be utilized with chemical fertilizer to improve seedling production as well as conserving soil quality.

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