Hayfaa Al-Tameemi⁽¹⁾ Najla Al–Amiri^*(1)  Mohammed Hassan⁽¹⁾

(1). Dept. of Soil Science and Water Resources, College of Agriculture, Univ.of Basrah, Iraq.

(*Correponding author: Dr.Najla Al–Amiri. E_Mail: dr.alamirism@yahoo.com).  

Received: 25/12/2017                                Accepted: 13/04/2018

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on maize crop (Zea mays L.) in plastic pots in two different soils (Qurna soil, which is poor organic matter and the other soil from Maysan marshes, which is rich in organic matter), to study the effect of selenium, sulfur and phosphate and their interaction on dry weight of shoot of maize crop. Selenium was added at four levels (0, 10, 20 and 40 g Se ha), sulfur at three levels (0, 30 and 60 kg S ha), and phosphorus at three levels (0, 60 and 120 kg P ha). Results indicated that the dry weight values ​​increased significantly, where it increased from14.79 to15.79 gm dry matter/5 plants  in Qurna soil, and from16.91 to18.01 gm dry matter/5 plants in marshes soil with increasing the quantity of selenium from 0 to 40 g Se ha, and from 14.54 to 16.00 gm dry matter/5 plants in Qurna soil, and from 16.90 to 18.05 gm dry matter/5 plants in marshes soil with increasing the quantity of phosphate from 0 to 120 kg P ha. While increase the quantity of added sulfur gave a significant increase in the dry weight of shoot of maize crop grown in the Qurna soil, where it increased from14.94 to 15.86 gm dry matter/5 plants with increasing the quantity of sulfur from 0 to 60 kg S/ha, but in the soil of marshes the increase was not significant. The results also showed that the binary interaction between selenium and sulfur and the binary interaction between selenium and phosphorus as well as the triangular interaction between selenium, sulfur and phosphorus had no significant effect on the dry weight of shoot for maize crop. The highest values ​​of Se₄S₃ treatment were (16.20 and 18.00 gm dry matter/5 plants), and Se₄P₃ (16.27 and 18.48 gm dry matter/5 plants) and Se₄S₃P₃ (16.90 and 18.70 gm dry matter/5 plants) in the Qurna and Marshlands, respectively.

Keywords: Selenium, Sulfur, Phosphate, Maize crop.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF