Response of sugarbeet to soil applied boron in Loamy sand soil of Punjab

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Date
2016
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
A field experiment entitled “Response of sugarbeet to soil applied boron (0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kg B ha-1) in loamy sand soil (low in available boron content 0.43 mg B kg-1 soil) of Punjab” was conducted at the research farm of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during Rabi season 2014-15. The soil of the experiment field was low in organic carbon and available nitrogen, medium in available potassium and phosphorus. With boron application a significant and progressive increase was noticed in root yield, foliage yield and yield attributes viz. number of leaves per plant, root perimeter, root length and germination percentage of sugarbeet. A curvilinear relationship was observed when rates of boron application were regressed with root yield, indicating application of 1.0 kg B ha-1 was adequate to optimize the yield, which resulted in 5.06 per cent increase in root yield over control. Fractionation of soil sample showed that boron concentration in readily soluble and specifically adsorbed forms in soil was low (0.59 and 0.39 per cent, respectively). The amount of boron in oxide, organic and residual fractions constituted 0.71, 1.25 and 97.03 per cent, respectively of total boron. Readily soluble boron was the dominant fraction which had highly significant over control plant uptake. Apart from field experiment, a laboratory experiment entitled “Effect of varying calcium carbonate content on boron availability in loamy sand soil” was conducted in laboratory of the department of Soils. Different levels of calcium carbonate (0.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10%) and boron (0.0, 1.25, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mg B kg-1 soil) were applied and incubated for 56 days. Subsamples from incubated soil were taken for boron analysis after 0, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days. Availability of boron was highest in control no calcium carbonate treatment and decreased with increasing calcium carbonate content. Results indicated that availability of boron was decreased with increasing levels of calcium carbonate over time periods.
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