Effects of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizer Levels on Growth and Development of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) at Bore District, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Fertilizer requirement of crops vary from location to location owing to several factors. Thus there is a need to determine site specific fertilizer recommendation for specific crops. Accordingly, an experiment was conducted on the effects of different nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer levels on yield and yield components of barley at south eastern Oromia, Bore, in 2009 cropping season. The barley variety Biftu was used as test crop. It is a newly released variety from Sinana Agricultural Research Center. The experiment contained factorial combination of five levels of N (0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 Kg ha -1 ) and four levels of P (0, 23, 46 and 69 Kg ha -1 ) laid out in randomized complete block design with four replications. Application of N significantly prolonged number of days to heading and maturity and grain filling period. Number of fertile tillers, total biomass and straw yield were significantly increased by application of N. However, the effect of N on plant height and number of total tillers was not significant. On the other hand, P application significantly influenced all the parameters of growth and development. Contrary to N, increase in P significantly shortened number of days to heading and maturity and grain filling period. Number of fertile tillers was significantly increased by P application. The interaction effect of N and P was significant on days to heading and number of fertile tillers. Therefore, balanced amount of N and P is very essential for appropriate growth of barley.

Optimizing blended (NPSB) and N fertilizer rates for the productivity of Durum wheat (Triticum turgidumL.var. durum) in Central Highlands of Ethiopia

“…Lack of increasing trend between blended NPSB and interaction effects of blended NPSB and nitrogen fertilizer rates could be attributed to the counteracting effects of phosphorus nutrient on N nutrient effects because N tends to increase vegetative growth, while phosphorus hastens the reproductive growth. This is in conformity with finding of Tigre et al (2014), who reported that under no phosphorus application, days to heading showed an increasing tendency with rising N rates on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).…”

Effect of urea fertilization on biomass yield, chemical composition,in vitrorumen digestibility and fermentation characteristics of straw of highland barley planted in Tibet

“…Previous studies have reported urea N fertilizer effects on stem diameter, leaf area index and biomass yield of barley components, in which the prominent feature was the increase of biomass yield with increasing urea N supply (Baethgen et al 1995;Hansen et al 2002;Cantero-Martínez et al 2003;McKenzie et al 2005). Tigre et al (2014) found that the mature stage of barley growth lasted 3-8 days longer with increasing urea N fertilization rates from 30 to 120 kg/ha. Similarly, maturity was observed to last 5-11 days longer of for highland barley in the present study, suggesting that urea N fertilization promoted vegetative growth and delayed maturity.…”

Effect of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizer Rates on Yield and Yield Components of Barley (<i>Hordeum Vugarae L.</i>) Varieties at Damot Gale District, Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

“…Cantero et al, (1995), Le Gouis et al, (1999) and Oweis et al, (1999) observed similar results for grains spike-1 in barley was significantly increased with increasing N fertilization as reported by Moselhy & Zahran (2002). They further revealed that application of nitrogen fertilizer significantly increased spike length, number of grains spike-1, 1000 grain weight, grain yield and N uptake by the crop (Chaudhary & Mehmood, 1998;Bakhsh et al, 1999;Wakene et al, 2014;Tilahun et al, 2000) Both N and P significantly influenced total biomass but their interaction effect was not significant ( Table 1). The highest TBM of 3.9 t ha-1 was recorded in the treatment which received 69/30 NP kg N ha-1 though not significantly different to the TBM obtained from 0/0NP Kg N ha-1 (2.4 t ha-1) ( Table 1).…”