Effect of ammonia gas and some micronutrients by different methods on yield characters and micronutrients contents maize plants (Zea mays). Hanan S. Siam, Mona G. bd-el-kader and bd El-Fattah M.S. bstract field experiments was carried out to study the effect of different nitrogen levels (100, 120 and 140 kg N/fed) as ammonia gas by injection methods in soil, and micronutrients as Fe, Mn and Zn at a rate of 6 mg/kg soil as soil application or 0.6 g/kg of seed coating or 0.6 g/l as foliar spray and their combination on yield, yield components and macronutrients contents of maize plant (Zea mays L. cv single hybride 10) The most important results could be summarized as follows: - Mixture of micronutrients application has a positive effect on improving and increasing maize yield and its components, micronutrients contents (Fe, Mn and Zn) and chemical composition (total carbohydrate's,starch,oil and Protein ) compared to other micro and control (untreated). - mong the individual micronutrients Zn gave the highest micronutrients level of the above mentioned parameters while, Mn gave the least values and Fe came in between. - Foliar spraying was more effective and increased of all the mentioned parameters followed by coating, while soil application methods were the least in this respect. - Moreover, the contents of micronutrients and chemical composition either grains or straw also significantly increased as a result of adding 140 kg N/fed and methods of micro application, followed by 120 kgn/fed, whereas the 100 kg N/fed showed the least values compared with control. - The interaction between nitrogen rates and methods of micro application and micro treatments had significant effect on grain yield/fed, yield characters, minerals and chemical composition. - In general, the highest values were obtained when the plants received 140 kg N/fed combined with mixture treatment application as foliar spray. Keywords: yield, micronutrients, nitrogen levels, foliar, Zn content. INTRODUTION Maize has been used worldwide for human and animal consumption, in view of its being an excellent source not only of carbohydrates but also oil. In Egypt, maize is one of the major field crops. Therefore, efforts are focused on increasing its productivity to overcome gap of cereals through growing high producing varieties under most favourable cultural condition. Nitrogen and micronutrients fertilization are the two of the most important factors in increasing the productivity of cereal crops in addition to P and K fertilizers. Eid (1985 and 1998) mentioned that the immediate effect of the injection of anhydrous ammonia was to create and alkaline reaction in the retention zone with the highest ph occurring in the
line of injection. The alkalinity decreased with increasing distance from the point of release. He added that the width of the retention zone had been shown to be dependent on the application rate, the soil texture, organic matter, moisture and the degree of hydrogen saturation. Micronutrients are the major essential plant nutrients. fter its application, a large proportion of micronutrients fertilizer is converted to unavailable form. However, the availability of micronutrient in the soluble state is of high agronomic value. Mishustin (2002) showed that the positive interaction between plants and rhizosphere can improve plant nutrition, plant tolerance to environmental stresses of the plant pathogens. It is often assumed that enhancement of plant growth. However, direct fertilizers applications to the soil may not lead to accuracy because the original cause of deficiency persists and renders the elements added unavailable. Foliar application of micronutrients for most crop took the priority and popularity in correcting micronutrients deficiencies, in Egypt, for as long as last four decades with a great deal of effectiveness (Gohar, 2005). The objective of the work is to study the effect of nitrogen levels as ammonia gas, and micronutrients as Fe, Mn and Zn on yield components of maize plant. Materials and Methods field experiment were carried out at Demo region, E1 Fayoum Governorate, Egypt during 2009/2010 season at sandy loam soil to evaluate the effect of nitrogen levels at a form ammonia gas (82% N) injected in soil (depth 20 cm) at rates 100, 120 and 140 N Kg/fed and some micronutrients Fe, Mn and Zn at 0.6 gm/l or 0.6 gm/kg of or 6 ppm by many methods application (foliar, coating seeds and soil). superphosphate at 75 kg/ fed of (15% P 2 O 5 ) and 60 kg/fed potassium sulphate (48% K 2 O) were added during soil preparation, Zea mays L. cv single hybride 310). mmonia was injected directly into the moderately moisten soil at 15 cm depth and 30 cm spacing between points of injection before planting. Experimental field was prepared and divided to plots 3.0 x 3.5 m. fter about 120 days from planting, plants were harvested. Grains yield was allowed to air-dried and recorded. Plant samples were analyzed to determine their nutrients content. oating treatments were practiced before planting by coated grains with 0.6 g/kg of grains of each Fe- EDDH, Mn- EDT, Zn-EDT and mixture of the three prior to elements. rains were first damped in (a) 1% solution of Trition () as an adhesive agent and mixed with the micronutrients chelates. The coated grains were allowed to dry before planting. Soil is loamy sand in texture, slightly alkaline (7.96) and electrical conductivity in extracted soil paste was 1.96 E dsm -1. Soil content from organic matter and ao 3 were 1.62 and 5.17 %, respectively. vailable macro and micro nutrients N, P, K, Fe, Mn and Zn were 56, 6.35, 284, 5.89, 2.43 and 3.56, respectively. Soil application of the studied micronutrients and the mixture were used at the concentration of 6 ppm to each microelement with the same prior chelate materials before the sowing. Foliar spray of the studied micronutrients and the mixture were used at the concentration of 0.6 g/l at two intervals namely after 30 and 50 days from planting. Volume of foliar solution was about 400 l/fed. Samples of green plant were collected from the different treatments oven-dried and grounded. Iron, manganese and zinc were determined according to the methods reported by (Jackson, 1973). Data were statistically analyzed for experiment according to (Stell and Torrie, 1980) in complete randomized blocks design, factorial, in three factors with four replicates in each treatment. Results
Micronutrients content (grains) status: Iron, manganese and zinc status: Iron content was associated with a positive contact with nitrogen levels, foliar method recorded of highest values compared with other application methods. Mixture treatment at foliar method registered of highest values compared with other treatments at all application methods. Increasing rates for Fe content as to mixture treatment at foliar method as a percentage compared with control (139, 121 and 102), highest a rate had of 100 kg/fed N level, may be due to physiological processes within plants. Increasing rates as a percentage as for Fe alone treatment at foliar method compared with control (126, 108 and 86), increasing a rate did with 75 kg/fed N level. Soil application method recorded the lowest values compared to the other methods (Table 1). Positive effect of nitrogen levels on Mn content was attained. Foliar method to micronutrients recorded of highest values compared to the other application methods, and could be written as following order: foliar > coating seeds> soil. Mixture treatment at foliar method registered of highest values compared with the other treatments at all application methods. Increasing rates as a percentage to mixture treatment at foliar method as to Mn content compared to control (132, 116 and 92), may be due to the competition for nutrients within plants. Micronutrients treatments could be arranged in descending order at all application methods as follow: mixture > Fe alone > Zn alone > Mn alone relatively of where Mn content in maize grains plants (Table 1). Data noticed that Zn had a positive contact with nitrogen level and took place the same previous trends with Fe and Mn content. Increasing rates to Fe alone treatment at foliar method as a percentage compared with control (84, 81and 64), highest a rate had with 100 kg/fed N level. Increasing rates to Zn alone treatment at foliar method as a percentage compared with control (71, 64 and 63), highest rate had with 100 kg/fed N level. Soil method recorded the lowest values compared to the other two application methods (Table 1). Oil and protein status in dry matter Data at table (2) shown that oil and protein content in maize dry matter plant. Oil and protein content were a positive contact with nitrogen levels (100, 120 and 140) kg/fed N. whenever nitrogen levels increases follow up in increasing of oil and protein content. pplication methods of micronutrients order were foliar > coating seeds > soil. Micronutrients treatments order at every application methods relatively were mixture > Fe > Zn > Mn. Increasing rates as a percentage to mixture treatment at foliar application method as to oil content compared with control were (53, 48 and 46), highest a rate had with 100 kg/fed N level, and as to protein content compared with control were (135, 136 and 126), highest a rate has with 100 ppm N level. Increasing rates as a percentage to Fe alone treatment at foliar method as for oil content compared with control were (51, 45 and 43), highest a rate had with 100 kg/fed N level, and as for protein content were (109, 114 and 107), highest a rate had with 120kg/fed N level.
Table (1); Micronutrients content (mg/plot) in maize grains plant as affected by nitrogen levels and a rate of some micronutrients by many methods. pplication methods Soil oating Foliar L.S.D 0.05 Micronutrients Fe Mn Zn N kg/fed 100 120 140 Means (1) 100 120 140 Means (1) 100 120 140 Means (1) ontrol 51.5 57.2 60.9 56.5 18.4 20.5 22.7 20.5 18.4 19.8 20.5 19.6 Fe 76.3 81.3 84.5 80.7 29.2 31.2 32.6 31.0 28.3 29.2 31.9 29.8 Mn 60.2 66.7 72.0 66.3 24.2 26.7 27.5 26.1 21.8 23.2 24.3 23.1 Zn 68.7 73.2 76.3 72.8 26.3 28.7 30.7 28.6 28.3 27.2 28.7 28.1 Mix 91.3 95.2 96.9 95.8 32.1 34.0 35.5 25.4 30.5 31.9 33.1 31.8 Means (2) 69.6 74.7 78.1 74.2 26.0 28.2 29.8 26.3 25.5 26.3 27.7 26.5 Fe 98.8 101 105 102 33.3 35.2 36.7 35.1 32.7 33.3 34.7 33.6 Mn 77.6 78.8 80.0 78.8 28.7 29.6 29.5 29.3 26.3 27.7 28.5 27.5 Zn 86.4 87.1 88.4 87.3 33.2 33.5 35.0 33.9 30.1 30.8 31.5 30.8 Mix 110 107 112 109 36.8 37.6 39.9 38.1 33.7 34.8 35.9 34.8 Means (2) 84.9 86.0 89.3 86.7 29.7 31.3 32.8 31.4 28.2 29.3 30.2 29.3 Fe 117 119 113 116 36.3 37.9 39.7 38.0 33.8 35.8 33.7 34.4 Mn 75.3 84.5 103 87.6 30.5 31.2 33.5 31.8 29.0 29.3 30.5 29.6 Zn 96.3 101 91.7 96.2 32.7 33.8 36.8 34.4 31.4 32.4 33.5 32.5 Mix 123 128 123 124 42.7 44.3 43.5 43.5 35.3 37.5 38.6 37.2 Means (2) 92.6 97.7 98.1 96.1 32.1 33.6 30.7 33.6 29.6 31.0 25.4 30.7 1.64 2.98 2.67 x 3.15 1.83 x 3.48 x 3.92 1.15 2.45 2.08 x 2.76 1.37 x 2.84 x 3.09 0.98 1.87 1.34 x 2.07 1.13 x 2.22 x 2.89
Table (2); Grain yield, Oil and protein contents in maize plants as affected by different levels of nitrogen and a rate of some micronutrient by many methods. pplication methods Soil oating Foliar L.S.D 0.05 Grain weight (ardep/plot) Oil % Protein % Micronutrients N kg/fed Mean 100 120 140 (1) 100 120 140 Mean (1) 100 120 140 Mean (1) ontrol 18.6 18.7 19.5 18.9 5.15 5.40 5.60 5.38 6.21 6.31 6.96 6.49 Fe 22.0 22.7 23.0 22.6 7.05 7.21 7.35 7.20 9.46 10.5 11.3 10.4 Mn 19.1 19.9 20.3 19.8 6.43 6.60 6.82 6.62 6.57 7.90 8.35 7.61 Zn 20.1 21.3 21.9 21.1 6.65 6.90 6.97 6.84 8.98 9.17 10.2 9.45 Mix 23.7 24.5 25.6 24.6 7.15 7.50 7.87 7.51 10.3 11.0 12.1 11.1 Means (2) 20.7 21.4 22.1 21.4 6.49 6.72 6.92 6.71 8.30 8.98 9.77 9.01 Fe 24.8 24.3 24.8 24.6 7.77 7.82 7.81 7.80 11.5 11.7 12.7 12.0 Mn 19.8 20.7 21.3 20.6 6.78 6.95 7.20 6.98 8.22 8.50 9.31 8.68 Zn 22.7 23.5 23.7 23.3 6.98 7.20 7.53 7.24 9.72 9.95 10.9 10.2 Mix 24.8 25.2 25.9 25.3 7.69 7.78 7.97 7.81 11.9 12.4 13.5 12.6 Means (2) 22.1 22.5 23.0 22.5 6.87 7.03 7.22 7.04 9.51 9.77 10.7 9.99 Fe 24.9 25.2 25.9 25.3 7.78 7.81 7.98 7.86 13.0 13.5 14.4 13.6 Mn 20.2 21.5 22.1 21.3 7.08 7.19 7.50 7.26 9.92 10.3 11.0 10.4 Zn 22.7 24.6 24.9 24.1 7.17 7.40 7.73 7.43 11.2 11.8 12.6 11.9 Mix 25.5 26.5 26.9 26.3 7.87 8.00 8.18 8.01 14.6 14.9 15.7 15.1 Means (2) 22.4 23.3 23.9 23.2 7.01 7.16 7.39 7.19 11.0 11.4 12.1 11.5 0.57 0.25 0.26 x 1.01 0.078 0.575 0.051 x 0.165 0.159 0.171 0.212 x 0.152 L.S.D 0.05 0.72 x 0.8 x 0.52 0.1 x 0.129 x 0.1 0.23 x 0.31 x 0.33
Total carbohydrate content status: Data in table (3) indicated to carbohydrate and starch content at a positive contact with nitrogen levels, whenever increased of nitrogen level increases of carbohydrate and starch content. Foliar application method recorded of highest values at all treatments than the other two application method. Soil method gave the lowest values. pplication methods order were foliar > coating seeds> soil. Micronutrients treatment order at all application method relatively were Mix> Fe> Zn> Mn. Increasing rates to mixture treatment at foliar method as a percentage compared to control was (52, 50 and 47), highest a rate with 100 kg/fed N level that s as carbohydrate content. s to starch content (53, 51 and 45), highest a rate with 100 kg/fed N, may be encourage formation of carbohydrate and starch in maize dry matter than the others nitrogen levels. Increasing rates as a percentage for Fe alone treatment at foliar method as to carbohydrate content compared to control were (34, 40 and 39), highest a rate had with 120 kg/fed N level may be due to the iron element inter at structure of the chlorophyll which ti carbohydrate factory in plant by assimilation light process. s for starch content (43, 41 and 39), highest rate did with 100 kg/fed N level. Increasing rates as a percentage to zinc alone treatment at foliar application method compared with control as to carbohydrate content were (28,30 and 31), highest a rate had obtained with 140 ppm N level. s to starch content were (27, 31 and 32), highest a rate had with 140 ppm N level. Table (3); Total carbohydrate and starch content in maize plants as affected by different rates of nitrogen fertilizer and a rate of some micronutrients by many methods. pplication methods Soil oating Foliar L.S.D 0.05 arbohydrates Micronutrients gm/100 gm dry weight Starch % N kg/fed 100 120 140 Means (1) 100 120 140 Means (1) ontrol 50 50 51 49 47.0 48.5 49.3 48.3 Fe 67 68 69 68 64.2 66.3 67.6 66.0 Mn 55 58 59 57.3 55.7 56.4 58.0 56.7 Zn 58 60 61 59.7 57.3 58.4 59.5 58.4 Mix 70 72 73 71.6 66.5 70.2 71.5 69.4 Means (2) 60 62 63 61.1 58.1 60.0 61.2 59.8 Fe 66 69 70 68.3 65.8 67.3 78.1 70.4 Mn 60 61 63 61.3 57.2 59.5 61.5 59.4 Zn 61 63 65 63.0 58.3 61.7 63.4 61.1 Mix 71 74 75 73.3 71.0 73.0 73.2 72.4 Means (2) 61.6 63 65 63.0 50.5 62.0 65.1 62.3 Fe 67 70 71 69.3 67.3 68.4 68.7 68.1 Mn 61 63 64 62.6 62.1 61.2 62.9 62.0 Zn 64 65 67 65.3 59.7 63.5 65.0 62.7 Mix 76 75 75 75.3 72.1 73.4 71.5 72.3 Means (2) 63.6 65 66 64.3 52.2 63.0 63.5 62.7 0.79 0.87 0.64 x 1.17 0.63 x 1.26 Discussions It can be stated that both nitrogen levels and micronutrients treatments affected the nutrient uptake, yield and yield quality of maize. There were significant differences x 2.05 0.57 0.85 0.57 x 0.78 0.03 x 0.75 x 0.94 6
between the examined treatments (Table 1). lso, increasing rates to Mn alone treatment at foliar method compared to control (66, 52 and 48%), highest a rate had with 100 ppm N level, that's confirm being of competition between nutrients within the plants. Soil application methods recorded the lowest values compared with the other two methods. ll the differences between treatments were significantly except some little values. min, et al., (2003) found that foliar spray of maize plants two times with the different micronutrients solutions caused a highly significant increase in grains yield of about 19.2% when plants sprayed with mixture of the three micronutrients, while caused only a significant increase about 12.7% in grains yield. Mekki and El-Sayed (2003); Mengal and Kirkby (2008) and Romheld and Marchner, 2006) illustrated that photosynthesis and translocation of photosynthesis from leaves to seed was promoted in plants well supplied with N. Total carbohydrates and starch tended to increase by adding N level. Generally, the highest values of carbohydrate and starch fraction in grain resulted with ammonia gas, while the lowest values gained with urea fertilizer. Hanan, et al. (2008) showed that the increase of protein content may be due to higher nitrogen utilization by the crop with adequate supply of N. That increasing N-rate was accompanied with a reduction in nitrogen use efficiency value. lso, they added that the oil content in mustard seed yield of maize plant increased significantly when applied ammonia gas at 140k N/ fed recorded the highest values of oil content comparing all other treatments. This increment may be due to higher grain yield production (Zhang et al., 2010). Increasing rates as a percentage to Zn alone treatment at foliar method as to oil content compared with control were 39, 37 and 38%, highest a rate did with 100 kg/fed N level, as for protein content were 80, 87 and 81%, highest a rate did with 120 kg/fed N level. Rate of 120 kg/fed N level may be encourage oil and protein production within maize plants specially with trace elements each of them a lone treatments. Ehab, et al., (2008) showed that the highest value of the dry ear leaf weight with the application of ammonium gas whereas application of ammonium nitrate gave the lowest value and the dry ear leaf weight showed significant differences between the application of ammonium gas and the other nitrogen fertilizers used, while no significant differences was obtained between the application of nitrogen as urea or any of thio-urea and (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 in corn plant. On the other side, data noticed that micronutrients mixture treatments recorded of highest values than micronutrients each of them alone. This finding may be due to the plant requirements to existence balance of all trace elements where it took place in all necessary vitality and physiological processes in plant and enzymes formation and hormones. onclusion Nitrogen fertilizer as a form of ammonia gas confirmed of high efficiency at increasing yield production by injection method in soil to maize plants. Micronutrients fertilizers as a form mixture confirmed of high ability than individually. Foliar application method to addition of micronutrients fertilizers recorded the highest values at the maize yield components in comparison with the other application methods. REFERENES 7
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