Madras Agricultural Journal
Loading.. Please wait

INFLUENCE OF PLANT PARTS DECOMPOSITION ON THE DECOMPOSITION OF SOIL ORGANIC MATTER

Abstract

                                The addition of fresh plant material to soil has been reported to accelerate the decom- position of indigenous organic matter. In some studies this claim has been disproved. This was tested using C labelled tissues of leaves, stems and roots of maize plants of different maturity stages in a laboratory study on a clay loam soil containing 0.49 percent. organic carbon. Plant materials added to the soils accelerate the decomposition of indi- genous organic matter; plant. leaves and stems decomposa more rapidly than the roots: increased loss of soll organic matter was obtained in the case of only 14-day old plant materials. Similar trends were observed in case of experiments conducted with moisture for 14 days. Considerably less soil organic matter decomposition was found in a compa- rable time after the addition of the plant materials in the preincubation experiments than in the non-preincubation experiments.

Key words :

footer

Copyright @ 2023 Madras Agricultural Journal | Masu Journal All right reserved.