Abstract
Soil acidification, fertility depletion, food insecurity, and environmental pollution all are consequences of the extensive use of chemical fertilizers (CF) in intensively managed plantations. Recent studies have shown that incorporating organic manure (OM) to partially replace CF can help to maintain productivity and soil health. There are no reports on integrated fertilizer management of Zanthoxylum armatum, for optimal ecological services and economic profitability. A pot experiment with Z. armatum was performed to investigate the possibility of incorporating OM in reducing CF use, enhancing soil fertility, and increasing plant growth. For this, seven treatments were designed: NPK, PK, NP, NK, OM, MNPK (50%NPK+50%OM), and control (CK, no fertilizer application). The results showed that NPK application significantly (P < 0.05) increased plant growth, soil nitrate-N, ammonium-N and available K compared to CK. However conventional CF application induced soil acidification. OM application raised the soil pH from 5.50 (CK) to 6.58 and significantly enhanced soil fertility by increasing alkali-hydrolysable N (2.3 times), ammonium-N (1.4 times), available P (4.3 times), the activity of invertase (1.5 times), catalase (2.8 times), acid phosphatase (1.5 times), and count of soil culturable microbes (2.9 times) compared to CK. Conversely, sole OM application did not result in optimum plant growth. Integrating OM with NPK (MNPK), on the other hand, not only provided the highest growth comprehensive value (0.84), but also substantially higher soil fertility comprehensive value (0.71) than traditional CF treatments. Correlation analysis also indicated a positive and significant correlation between soil microbes, enzyme activities and available nutrients. Therefore, OM+NPK could be an optimum measure to get maximum benefits regarding soil fertility, growth of Z. armatum, fertilizer savings and sustainable agroecology.
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Claims 15
Claim · model-written summary
NPK significantly increased plant growth and three soil nutrient measures against control.
- Treatment
- NPK applicatione0
- Outcome
- plant growth, soil nitrate-N, ammonium-N and available Ke0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Comparator
- CKe0
Not reportedTaxon
Verbatim
e0“NPK application significantly (P < 0.05) increased plant growth, soil nitrate-N, ammonium-N and available K compared to CK”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Conventional chemical fertilizer acidified soil.
Not reportedTaxonComparatorDirection
Verbatim
e0“conventional CF application induced soil acidification”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure raised soil pH from 5.50 to 6.58.
Not reportedTaxon
Verbatim
e0“OM application raised the soil pH from 5.50 (CK) to 6.58”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased alkali-hydrolysable N 2.3 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“increasing alkali-hydrolysable N (2.3 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased ammonium-N 1.4 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“ammonium-N (1.4 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased available P 4.3 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“available P (4.3 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased invertase activity 1.5 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“invertase (1.5 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased catalase activity 2.8 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“catalase (2.8 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased acid phosphatase activity 1.5 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“acid phosphatase (1.5 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure increased culturable soil microbes 2.9 times.
Not reportedTaxonTreatmentComparator
Verbatim
e0“count of soil culturable microbes (2.9 times)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Organic manure alone did not yield optimum plant growth.
Not reportedTaxonComparator
Verbatim
e0“sole OM application did not result in optimum plant growth”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
MNPK had the highest growth comprehensive value of 0.84.
- Treatment
- Integrating OM with NPK (MNPK)e0
- Outcome
- growth comprehensive valuee0
- Direction
- higheste0
- Value
- 0.84e0
Not reportedTaxonComparator
Verbatim
e0“Integrating OM with NPK (MNPK), on the other hand, not only provided the highest growth comprehensive value (0.84)”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
MNPK had a soil fertility comprehensive value of 0.71, higher than traditional fertilizer.
- Outcome
- soil fertility comprehensive valuee0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- 0.71e0
- Comparator
- traditional CF treatmentse0
Not reportedTaxonTreatment
Verbatim
e0“substantially higher soil fertility comprehensive value (0.71) than traditional CF treatments”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil microbes, enzyme activities and available nutrients were positively correlated.
Not reportedTaxonOrgan / stageSetting
Verbatim
e0“positive and significant correlation between soil microbes, enzyme activities and available nutrients”
t0“Zanthoxylum armatum”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend OM plus NPK for growth, fertility and fertilizer savings.
- Taxon
- Z. armatum
Zanthoxylum armatume0 - Treatment
- OM+NPKe0
- Outcome
- OM+NPK could be an optimum measuree0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“OM+NPK could be an optimum measure to get maximum benefits regarding soil fertility, growth of Z. armatum, fertilizer savings and sustainable agroecology”