Integrated Impact of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Growth, Yield of Maize (Zea mays l.) and Soil Properties under Upper Egypt Conditions

Abstract

A field study was carried out during the two consecutive summer seasons of 2015 and 2016 at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azahar University, Assiut Governorate located 375 km south of Cairo, Egypt (27° 12- 16.67= N latitude and 31° 09- 36.86= E longitude). The experiment aims to study the effect of useing different fertilizers including (NPK), ureaform (UF), compost (C), Sheep manure (S), humic acid (HA), and yeast extract (YE) on growth, productivity and quality of Maize yield (var., Hi-Tech 1100). The experiment was a Randomized complete Block design (RCBD) with three replicates.The treatments were six: (T1) Check treatment full recommended NPK (Control), (T2) = (CS + UF), (T3) = (YE + UF), (T4) = (HA + UF), (T5) = (CS + YE) and (T6) = (CS + HA). In both seasons, the combination of 10 tons fed-1 of compost and sheep manure plus 50 kg fed-1 of ureaform (T2) resulted in the highest growth, yield and yield components and quality of maize as comparedto the others treatments. The effect of different combination from the used fertilizers could be arranged in the following descending order T2 > T6 > T5 > T4 > T1 >T3. Treatment (T2) gave the highest grain yield (3494 and 3676 kg fed-1) with an increase of (29.31 and 21.84%) as compared to T3 (2702 and 3017 kg fed-1) during 1st and 2nd seasons, respectively. The NPK maize grain content as affected by different combination could be arranged in the following descending order T3 < T1 < T4 < T5 < T6 < T2. Also, compost and sheep manure addition improved soil properties since they increased organic matter content and decreased soil reaction (pH). Finally, it could be concluded that the integration of organic and inorganic fertilizers was better than using organic or inorganic fertilizer separately. Using the high amount of organic fertilizers (10 ton fed-1 CS) with ureaform (50 kg fed-1 UF) was the best treatment for producing high quality and increasing yield of maize crop under Upper Egypt conditions in Assiut.