Abstract
An experiment was performed in Standoff, Southern Alberta to investigate resource cheap rock phosphate organic fertilizer application to corn, carrot and onion plots. The objective of the study was to ascertain effectiveness of rock phosphate organic fertilizer to support growth and yield of corn, carrot and onion crops grown in Southern Alberta. The varying levels of rock phosphate at 50 P kg/ha for Low P, 100 P kg/ha for High P and control were applied to corn, carrot and onion plots. These treatments were replicated three times, resulting into nine plants per crop. Agronomical parameters collected were subjected to analysis of variance using Duncan Multiple Range Test for separation of means. Result of the experiment indicated that Low P and High P favoured corn height and number of leaves but did not support other parameters measured due to inadequate rock phosphate applied. It was observed that rock phosphate influenced residual level of P after harvest of corn, carrot and onion. Onion plots had the highest P left in the soil than corn and carrot plots. This studies showed potential of rock phosphate in crop production, if apply in adequate amount and availability of soil moisture, as well as high residual P in the soil after harvest.
Highlights
Climate change has caused set back to cropping system as a result of soil degradation
The use of rock phosphate is primitive in Canada as a source of organic phosphorus fertilizer and there is limited literatures reported on rock phosphate jas.ccsenet.org Journal of Agricultural Science
It was observed that Low P and High P positively influenced number of leaves, but High P was not significantly different from control at 98 Days after sowing (DAS)
Summary
Climate change has caused set back to cropping system as a result of soil degradation. There are many degraded soils around the world caused by over usage of chemical fertilizer (FAO, 2007; Baligar et al, 2001). The excessive usage of chemical fertilizer negatively affects soil physiochemical and biological composition of the soils, as well as soil structure (Baligar et al, 2001; FAO, 2007). Climate change has changed soil composition, as result of excessive usage of chemical fertilizer (Brevik, 2003). Organic farming by application of rock phosphate could able to alleviate this world wide problem (Zapata & Roy, 2004). Application of rock phosphate to soil is very sustainable in the sense that it has high residual effect whereby phosphorus in the soil is available to subsequent season plants (Perrott & Wise, 2000). The use of rock phosphate is primitive in Canada as a source of organic phosphorus fertilizer and there is limited literatures reported on rock phosphate jas.ccsenet.org
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