Effect of soil management on rain-fed wheat in Northern India. II. Nutrient uptake, plant growth and yield

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of soil management practices such as zero cultivation (ZC), conventional cultivation (CC), CC + surface-applied pine needle mulch (CC + M), deep ploughing (DP) and inter-row compaction (IRC) on nutrient utilisation and growth of rain-fed wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.). The soil was a silty clay loam with compact sub-surface layers and classified as Alfisol, Typic Hapludalf. The concentrations of NO 3N and NH 4N in soil, in general, were less under CC + M and DP and more under ZC and IRC compared to CC. Despite the low availability of N under CC + M and DP, the plants did not suffer from nitrogen stress compared to other treatments. In fact, the total uptake of N by plants at different growth stages was significantly higher than CC, except for DP during early growth. The total uptake of P and K was also significantly higher under CC + M than CC. However, under DP it was not always significantly higher than CC. Mulching resulted in significantly higher dry matter yield than CC at tillering, stem elongation and heading. DP also produced significantly higher dry matter yield than CC at heading. ZC and IRC behaved similar to CC in terms of nutrient uptake and dry matter yield. The grain yield of CC + M during 1981 and in CC + M and DP during 1982 was significantly higher than the remaining treatments.