Application of hog (Sus domesticus) manure to agricultural land converts waste to fertilizer. Nevertheless, matching nutrients in highly variable manure to soil or crop needs requires analytical capability that is ideally field portable and cost‐effective. This study explored using rapid nondestructive near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to analyze nutrients in hog manure and receiving soil. Spectral data in the visible and near‐infrared (NIR) region (400–2500 nm) from manure samples were correlated with chemical analytical data from the same samples using multiple linear regression statistics to develop calibrations for the prediction of future unknown samples. For 64 manure samples from seven manure storage facilities, r2 between NIR‐predicted values and chemically measured values was 0.93 to 0.99 for NH4–N, total dissolved N (TDN), suspended N, soluble reactive P (SRP), total dissolved P (TDP), suspended P, suspended C, Na, and Mg. For K, Ca, conductivity, and pH, r2 was >0.80. Subsequent analysis of 75 samples from 25 facilities gave similar or slightly less successful results. Soil samples collected before and following application of manure were scanned in a field‐moist state and after drying. For field‐moist soil, r2 for N, organic matter, Mg, and moisture was >0.84; for SO4–S was 0.7. For dry soil, results were similar for N and better for Mg SO4–S, Ca, and K. Near‐infrared spectroscopy has potential to predict some nutrient and salt concentrations in manure rapidly and without sample preparation. It can determine moisture, organic matter, total N, and Mg in field‐moist or dry soil and SO4–S, Ca, and possibly K in dry soil.

The feasibility of using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was investigated for the analysis of pH, electrical conductivity (EC), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), potassium (K), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) in 28 Canadian soil samples from three boreholes down to 10 m in depth. Field moist soil samples were scanned for pH and EC, and air-dry samples were scanned for the analysis of the elements. Calibrations were developed between the near-infrared spectral data and results obtained by conventional analyses. The NIR-predicted values were highly correlated to the measured values obtained by the conventional methods (r 2 >0.9) for P, Ca, Mg, K, Fe, and Mn, and almost as highly correlated (r 2 >0.8) for S and Na Results for pH were somewhat less successful (r 2 >0.6), and 999

No abstract

No abstract

An investigation was made with a view to estimating inbred and hybrid seed production potentiality as well as fruit yield potentiality of 11 tomato genotypes and their hybrids during November 2009 to September 2010 at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur. The highest number of fruits per plant was recorded from the genotype C41 (59.66). The highest fruit yield per plant (2.94 kg) was recorded from the genotype WP8 followed by that of C11 (2.93 kg). In respect of seed yield performance, the genotype C51 produced the highest number of seeds per fruit (47.66), while the line C41 produced the highest seed yield per plant (7.66 g). Per hectare seed yield varied from 263.0 kg (C41) to 53.79 kg (MP5). The highest per plant (6.33 g) and per hectare (139.26 kg) hybrid seeds were produced by the cross combination of C11 X C51 followed by that of WP8 × C11. The fruit weight and fruit yield of the hybrids were much higher compared to their superior parents during the summer season. Among the six tomato hybrids, WP7 X C51 had the highest fruit weight (67.60 g) and produced the highest fruit yield per plant (1.43 kg) followed by BARI Hybrid Tomato-4 (1.24 kg). The other two hybrids, WP8 X C51 (1.08 kg/plant) and C51 X WP10 (1.1 kg/plant) were also found promising.