Journal of Environmental Biology

Effects of fertilizer application to sweet corn (Zea mays.) grown on sandy soil

 

Ferenc Orosz*^1,2, Samuel Jakab², Tomas Losak³ and Katalin Slezak¹

¹Department of Vegetable and Mushroom Growing, Faculty of Horticultural Science,

Corvinus University of Budapest 29-43 Villanyi st., 1118 Budapest, Hungary

²Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Technical and Human Science,

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, 1/C Sighisoara st., 540485, Tg.- Mures, Romania

³Department of Agrochemistry, Soil Science, Microbiology and Plant Nutrition,

Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry Brno, Zemedelska 1, 61300 Brno, Czech Republic

(Received: June 11, 2008; Revised received: October 10, 2008; Accepted: November 15, 2008)

 

Abstract: In our experiment we tried to find out what kind of eventual changes in the environment and in plant chemical composition occurred in response to different fertilizer treatments applied to sweet corn (Zea mays convar. saccharata) grown on sandy soil with low humus content. The ploughed layer contained <1% CaCO₃ and around 1% humus. The soil was very well supplied with P, well supplied with K, Mg, Mn and Cu, and weakly supplied with N and Ca. The treatments were planned in accordance with the recommendations, with a planned unhusked ear yield of 16 tons per hectare, of the new environmental friendly advisory system recently elaborated for field vegetable crops in Hungary. The treatments applied included: G1 (blank control) _N0P0K0, G2 _{N222.5 P22.2 K143}, G3 _{N445 P22.5 K143}, G4 _{N222.5 P22.5 K143}, G5 _{N222.5 P22.5 K286}, G6 _{N222.5 P22.5 K143}+Mg_1.52. According to our findings, of the composition parameters of the grains of the treatments with no fertilizer application, the invert and reducing sugar contents (4.42%, respectively 2.59% relative to fresh weight^-1) in grains were the highest among the treatments. The same conclusion was drawn on the K 120.2, Mg 13.3, Fe 0.24, Cu 0.66 mg 100 g^-1 grain dry weight levels among minerals. In the case of the basic treatment (G2) recommended by the advisory system we obtained favourable results for the measured parameters, including yields. Invert and reducing sugar contents were (3.26% respectively 1.97% relative to fresh weight^-1), and mineral contents K 101.9; Mg 11.8; Fe 0.21; Cu 0.56 mg 100 g^-1 dry weight. In the grains, no translocation of toxic elements was observed in response to the direct or indirect effect of the treatments.

Key words: Sweet corn, Sandy soil, Mineral content, Reducing sugar content, Environmental harms

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