Soil-plant micronutrients dynamics in response to integrated fertilization under wheat-soybean cropping system at Rawalakot, Pakistan

This study provided an insight on improving soil-plant micronutrients availability in response to poultry manure (PM), wheat milling residues (WMR) and urea N (UN) and their integration in wheat-soybean cropping system. The treatments were: control; poultry manure full, PM100; wheat milling residues full, WMR100; urea N full, UN100; PM half and WMR half, PM50+WMR50; UN50+PM50; UN50+WMR50; UN50+PM25+WMR25. All amendments were added at the rate or equivalent to 100kg total N ha(-1). Results indicated that the integrated treatments increased Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn uptake of wheat by 35.7-103%, 48.4-111.1%, 85.2-267.0% and 33.8-128.2%, respectively over control. In soybean the corresponding increase in micronutrient uptake (Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) was 18.3-60.3%, 27.5-87.4%, 14.1-54.6% and 13.2-58.0% in integrated treatments. The post-harvest soil analysis indicated 2 to 3-fold increase in micronutrient content with highest values in PM100 i.e., 2.66mg kg(-1) for Cu, 14.41mg kg(-1) for Fe, 18.58mg kg(-1) for Mn and 2.44mg kg(-1) for Zn, respectively. The results showed that the PM either alone or in integrated with WMR and UN can be an effective management strategy for improving micronutrient content of soil-plant.