IMPACTS OF COW DUNG AND POULTRY MANURE ON THE MINERAL NUTRIENT UPTAKE OF RED AMARANTH GROWN IN A MIXTURE OF ACID AND CALCAREOUS SOILS

Abstract

A pot experiment was performed in the net house to observe the influence of
cow dung and poultry manure on the growth of red amaranth grown in the
amended soil (mixture of acid and calcareous soil). Acid soil was mixed with
calcareous soil at a ratio of 3:1 for experiment with red amaranth. The pot
experiment was conducted with the mixed soil indicated by T0M (control-where
no amendment was added), three different rates of cow dung such as T1 (3
ton/ha), T2 (6 ton/ha) and T3 (9 ton/ha) and three rate of poultry manure
designated as T4 (2 ton/ha), T5 (4 ton/ha) and T6 (6 ton/ha). Treatment responses
were evaluated in terms of different parameters including uptake of nutrients by
plants and post-harvest properties of soil such as physico-chemical properties
and residual nutrient content of the soil. It is evident from the experiment that
the uptake of the plant nutrients was the best in the mixed soil (T0M-control) than
those of the acid (TA) and calcareous soils (TC). On the other hand, T3 (9 ton cow
dung/ha) showed the highest uptake of nutrients except for S and Mg among the
all treatments. In the post-harvest soil, the maximum nutrient contents increased
in the highest doses of cow dung (except for the S, Cu, Mn and Zn) and poultry
manure (except for the K, Ca, Mg and Fe) treatments. Results of the study
showed that soil amendment (mixture of acid and calcareous soil) can be a
suitable reclamation process while the addition of organic manures can also
improve soil health.