Muhammad Mazhar Iqbal1*, Tayyaba Naz2, Hafeez-u-Rehman3, Sehar Nawaz4, Muhammad Abdul Qayyum5, Mazhar Iqbal Zafar6, Omer Farooq7, Atiqure-urRehman7, Muhammad Imtiaz8, Ghulam Murtaza2, Abid Mahmood9, Shahzada Munawar Mehdi10, Shahid Javed11, Muhammad Aleem Sarwar12, Muhammad Ishaq Javed13
1Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Chiniot. Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, Pakistan
2Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
3Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Sialkot. Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, Pakistan
4Centre of Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
5Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences. Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan
6Department of Environmental Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
7Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
8Environmental Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, Pakistan
9Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, Pakistan
10Rapid Soil Fertility Survey and Soil Testing Institute, Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
11Provincial Reference Fertilizer Testing Laboratory, Raiwind, Lahore, Pakistan
12Soil and Water Testing Laboratory for Research, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan
13Agricultural Economics Section, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Abstract
The impact of applied farm manure (FM) on growth of maize and tissue Pb concentration in maize grown on saline-sodic sandy loam and sandy clayey loam textured Pb-toxic soils was evaluated in present pot study. The soils were spiked with Pb at 200 kg ha-1 soil and equilibrated for 60 days at about field capacity. Treatments were comprised of three levels of FM (0, 20 or 40 g kg-1 soil) arranged in completely randomized design each replicated thrice. The highest dry matter of maize shoots from sandy loam soil was recorded with the applied 40 g kg-1 FM. From sandy loam soil, maximum dry matter of shoots was noted with FM at 20 and 40 g kg-1. Applied FM at 20 and 40 g kg-1 produced statically similar dry matter of maize roots in sandy clayey loam soil. While in sandy loam soil, 20 g kg-1 FM application resulted in significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher dry matter of maize roots than control treatment and 40 g kg-1 FM application. The applied FM at 20 and 40 g kg-1 consequence in statically similar shoot and root Pb concentration grown on both textured Pb-toxic soils but lower compared to that of the control soils. For post-experiment soils, minimum plant available Pb in sandy loam soil with FM at 40 g kg-1 was recorded while in sandy clayey loam, minimum plant available Pb was observed with the addition of FM at 20 and 40 g kg-1.
Keywords: Farm manure, Organic matter, Pb concentration, Salinity, Sodicity, Pb venomous soil