Effect of the way set-aside land is maintained on the content of available forms of selected micronutrients in soil.

Abstract

AbstractIn 1996, a field experiment was set up on class IIIa soil, which consisted of 6 trials:1 – bare fallow, 2 – fallow land seeded with annual plants, 3 – field swarded with goat’srue ( Galega orientalis Lam.), 4 – traditional fallow, 5 – field swarded with a mix of goat’srue ( Galega orientalis Lam.) and aweless brome ( Bromus inermis ), 6 – field swarded withaweless brome ( Bromus inermis ). During the tests, no agrotechnical measures were car-ried out apart from periodical mechanical weeding of the bare fallow and the sowing ofannual plants. Plant samples for chemical analyses were taken from the swarded fields;the remaining biomass was left on the fields. After each growing season, soil samples werecollected in four replicates from the 0-25 cm and 25-50 cm soil horizons, for determinationof the content of Cu, Zn and Mn available forms. This paper discusses the results obtainedin 2000-2007.The experiment has demonstrated that the way farmland was laid fallow or set-asidehad an effect on concentrations of the available forms of Cu, Zn and Mn in the 0-25 and25-50 cm soil horizons. Particularly large changes occurred in the levels of Zn and Mn.The way set-aside arable land was kept had a weaker influence on the concentrationsof easily soluble forms of copper. By seeding annual plants and leaving the grown biomasson a set-aside field, it was possible to maintain the soil abundance of available Zn on a highlevel and that of Cu and Mn – moderately high. Keeping soil as bare fallow favoured bet-ter accumulation of available forms of copper and manganese.Key words: set-aside, fallow, available forms of Zn, Cu and Mn.dr in?. Piotr ¯arczynski, Chair of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment Protection,University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Oczapowskiego Street 8, 10-744 Olsztyn,Poland, e-mail: piotr.zarczynski@uwm.edu.pl