Effect of soil amendments on soil fertility and maize productivity in a newly reclaimed soil

Abstract EN

Two field experiments were carried out at private farm at El-quntra Shark, Ismailia Governorate, Egypt, during two successive seasons of summer 2018 and 2019 to study the effect of soil amendments (biochar, compost and bio-fertilizer) with or without different rates of nitrogen mineral fertilizer on the fertility of study soil and maize productivity.

In both seasons, each experiment was carried out in split plot design with three replicates.

The obtained results indicated that the soil pH and EC (dSm^-1) tended to decrease with increasing nitrogen mineral combined with compost and bio-fertilizer than biochar.

The high of mean values of available N, P and K in soil was 44.04, 5.93 and 177.00 mg/kg soil for soil treated by compost together with nitrogen mineral fertilizer.

Application of soil amendments had positive significant effect for Fe and Zn, while was not significant for Mn content in soil.

The effect of biochar, compost and bio-fertilizer combined with different rates of nitrogen mineral fertilizer on plant height (cm), weight of 100 grains (g), weight of stover (ton/fed), weight of ears (ton/fed) and weight of grains yield (ton/fed) were increased with increasing nitrogen mineral application rate except plants treated with bio-fertilizer.

The effect of soil amendments application significantly increased N, P and K concentrations in stover and grains.

The interaction between soil amendments and different rates of nitrogen mineral fertilizer showed insignificant affect on the amount of Fe, Mn and Zn in stover and grains of maize.

The application of soil amendments improved the growth characters and grain yield of maize and also the chemical and physical properties of soil.