Fertilizers, Mycorrhizal Inoculation and Atrazine Interactions on Weed Biomass and Yield of Maize

Abstract

The decline in soil fertility and poor weed management are the dominant limitation on the production of maize in Nigeria. Improving the efficiency of fertilizers through AMF inoculation and atrazine application may be a sustainable way to increase land productivity. Using completely randomised design with three replications, combinations of Organomineral Fertilizer (OF) at 0, 50, 100, 150 kg N/ha- and NPK 15-15-15 (400 kg/ha); Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF, with and without); and atrazine (0, 1.5 kg a.i/ha) were evaluated in 30 kg pot experiment. Maize grain yield ranged from 0.07-101.20 g/plant. Sole applications of OF, AMF and atrazine increased maize growth and yield. Combining atrazine with AMF inoculation improved maize growth but significantly reduced grain yield (37.13 g/plant) compared to sole applications of AMF (75.13 g/plant) or atrazine (62.97 g/plant). The application of OF did not alter the AMF-atrazine interaction, except under NPK fertilizer application, where the interaction enhanced grain yield. All treatments involving atrazine produced lower total dry weed biomass. However, the total dry weed biomass produced across fertilizer applications increased non-significantly with AMF inoculation, while AMF colonization reduced with atrazine application. Therefore, combining 100 kg N/ha OF with AMF inoculation or atrazine was suggested under organomineral fertilizer application.