Efficiency of Sulfur, Compost and Phosphoreen as a Direct and Residual Effect in Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted on calcareous soil at El-Nubaria AgricultureResearch Station, El -Behera Governorate to study the efficiency of sulfur (mineral fert), compost (organic fert) and phosphoreen (bio fert) with two different sources of phosphorus (rock phosphate and superphosphate) on physiochemical soil properties and yields of wheat as direct and succeeded by maize as residual effect grown on a calcareous soil. To fulfill this objective, two field experiments were conducted on EI-Noubaria calcareous soil during two successive winter (2014 -2015) and summer seasons (2015). The treatments were : A-amendments factor as control, sulfur by rate, 1 ton fed -1 as mineral fertilizer, compost, 10 ton fed -1 as organic fertilizer and phosphoreen seed inoculation with PDB as bio fertlizer and two sources of phosphorus ( control , rock phosphate and superphosphate) . The experimental plots were distributed in a splitplot design. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L, cv. Sakha 93) was cultivated within the first half of November 2014 then harvested in May 2015. The second experiment was conducted to study the residual effect of the aforementioned treatments on maize (Zea maize L, c v. single cross 10) cultivated at the same experimental plots in the second half of May 2015 and harvested at the end of August (2015). The results indicated that: The treatment of sulfur combined with super phosphate treatment has the highest effect in lowering pH values followed by compost treat. Also bio fertilizer showed moderately values. EC values of soil were increased by sulfur application combined with super phosphate treatment wheres, compost caused reductions in the EC values as compared to the control. The highest values of OM were recorded by compost combined with super phosphate treatment over sulfur followed by bio fertilizer. An improvement in soil physical properties as affected by soil amendment was observed. Wherever a slight decreased in soil bulk density (BD), an increase in both soil total porosity (TP) and soil hydraulic conductivity (HC) with using compost (organic fert) than sulfur (mineral fert) followed by phosphoreen (bio fert) were occurred. Compost combined with super phosphate treatment achieved the highest biological, grain yield and 100 grains weight of wheat and maize plant followed by sulfur combined with super phosphate treatment. Compost treatments significantly increased NPK uptake of wheat and maize crop. Also data revealed the superiority of compost treatments over sulfur followed by biofertilizer combined with super phosphate, compared to that treatment combined with rockphosphate. Generally, the different soil properties and crop yield of wheat and maize plant grown on calcareous soil were more affected by compost combined with super phosphate treatment than sulfur followed by bio fertilizer addition compared to rock phosphate treatment.