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Determination of fertilizer requirements of potato on the basis of soil tests in the north-western hills of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

R. C. Sharma
Affiliation:
Division of Crop and Soil Science, Central Potato Research Institute, Simla 171 001, HP, India
H. C. Sharma
Affiliation:
Division of Crop and Soil Science, Central Potato Research Institute, Simla 171 001, HP, India

Summary

In field experiments with potato conducted from 1981 to 1983 on acid hill soils of Simla, a technique was developed to work out the relative contribution of soil and fertilizer nutrients to potato production. The locations accounted for more variation in tuber yield than the fertilizer effects. The value of soil tests in explaining the variation due to locations was modified by years. On average, nitrate, organic carbon and available K explained 59, 25 and 41% of the variation. The response to fertilizer N was significant in all yea s and to K was significant in 1982 only, but that to fertilizer P was not significant in any year. The fertilizer doses of N and K were calculated both from the soil test based regression equations and the fertilizer response equations. The dose of N varied from 129 to 133 kg/ ha in different years but the response per kg N at the economic dose varied from 0·05 to 0·13 t/ha.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

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