Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hub.ifdc.org/handle/20.500.14297/2086

Browse

Browse by

Author
Collection
Date
Topics
Titles

Browsing Journal Articles by Subject "Acid soils"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Relative Performance of Coated Blends, Granular Blends and Compound Fertilizers on Maize Yield
    (2022-11-30) Reda Ahmed; Genga Quintar ; Ngunjiri Mercy; Leonardus Vergutz; Wendt John
    Multi-nutrient fertilizers are becoming increasingly popular. Differences in relative crop response between blended and compound fertilizer forms have received little attention. This study was carried out to investigate the relative performance of a compound fertilizer, a blend formulated with coated micronutrients (zinc and boron), and a blend formulated with granular micronutrients. Yara MilaTM PowerTM compound fertilizer was used as the nutrient reference fertilizer, and two blends were formulated to apply the same amounts of nutrients per hectare. Both full and half rates of each fertilizer were applied. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications was employed at two sites in Bungoma county, Kenya using maize as a test crop. Ear-leaf analyses showed non-significant differences for most nutrients in most treatments within sites, with leaf N, K, S, B and Zn deficiency evident at both sites. Leaf deficiencies of Zn and B suggest that rates may not have been adequate for optimal production. Site 2 (pH 4.52) showed substantially lower ear-leaf nutrient concentrations compared with Site 1 (pH 5.14), particularly for Mg and Ca, which were also deficient in initial soil analysis at both sites. At Site 1, no significant differences were noted between the micronutrient coated blend, granular blend and compound, and yields were greatest at the full rate of fertilizer. At Site 2, the micronutrient coated blend gave significantly greater yields than the granular blend and the compound, and yields were not affected by fertilizer rate. We conclude that micronutrient-coated blends can be as effective or more effective than fertilizer compounds containing the same nutrient concentrations.