Abstract

                                Phosphorus (P), a essential element for all living organisms is often the most limiting nutrient in soil-plant systems. In order to increase the phosphorus content in plants and its uptake efficiency in alkaline soil, the following study was undertaken. The experiment was carried out in a factorial completely randomized block design with five treatment combinations viz., Control (no P), P alone @ 71.35 kg ha-1, P with Farm Yard Manure (FYM) @ 12.5 t ha-1, Enriched Farm Yard Manure (EFYM) (FYM @ 750 kg ha-1 enriched with recommended dose of SSP) and P with Humic acid @ 3 kg ha-1. All the five treatments were tried with and without Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) @ 5 kg ha-1 and the experiment was replicated four times. The phosphorus concentration in soil and plant samples were analysed. The available phosphorus status in soil showed a decreasing trend along the growth stages of maize but the application of P with FYM (25.04 kg ha-1) and as EFYM (24.57 kg ha-1) recorded significantly higher available P in all the stages. The plant P concentration also showed the decreasing trend along the crop growth stages and recorded the highest concentration in P with FYM and VAM treatment (0.19 %). The grain P uptake (0.14 g pot-1) and stover uptake (0.10 g pot-1) was also found to be higher in the application of P and FYM with VAM. The combined application of inorganic minerals (SSP @ 71.35 kg ha-1) along with organics (FYM @ 12.5 t ha-1) and bioinoculants (VAM @ 5 kg ha-1) can enhance the soil quality and health for the sustainable crop production.

Key words : Phosphorus; VAM; FYM; P uptake