Effect of Urea, NPK and Compost on Growth, Yield and Quality Characters of Soybean

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive seasons (2009\2010 and 2010\2011) on the Demonstration Farm of the College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology at Shambat, to study the effect of inorganic and organic fertilizers on growth, yield and quality of soybean (Glycine max L Merril). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replicates. The soybean genotype used was 1905 E. The fertilizers treatments consisted of three types of fertilizers: urea 46% N (180 kg\ha), NPK 23-23-0 (361kg\ha), compost (1904.76 kg\ha) and then control. Characters studied included: growth attributes (plant height, number of leaves per plant and leaf area), phenological attributes (number of days to first flowering, number of days to 50% flowering and number of days to 100% flowering), yield components (number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds per pod, plant dry weight (g), seeds weight per plant (g), 100 seeds weight (g), fresh yield per meter length (kg\ha), biological yield per meter length (kg\ha), economic yield per meter length (kg\ha), straw yield (kg\ha) and harvest index %) and seeds chemical constituents (proximate analysis, fatty acids, amino acids and minerals). The results showed that fertilizers treatments had no significant effect on all growth and phenological attributes in both seasons, except in second season in plant height at 30 days. Fertilizers treatments had significant effect on number of pods\plant and harvest index in the first season. In the second season fertilizers treatments had significant effect on fresh, biological and straw yield but there were no significant effect on economic yield and harvest index. Fertilizers treatments had no significant effect on proximate analysis however the highest level of fiber was (17.35) given by control. Urea treatment gave the highest level of ash and protein (5.62 and 42.6 %) respectively, and the highest level of fat was given by NPK treatment (15.78%). With regard to fatty acid composition control and urea treatments gave the highest percentage of palmitic acid (13.3 and 13.2). NPK and compost gave highest effect in linoleic acid (49.4, 49.9%) and compost gave highest polyunsaturated fatty acids content (56.5%). general compost treatment gave the lowest value of amino acids and the highest value of the mineral content. Control gave the highest values of amino acids Aluminium, Chromium and Sodium. urea and NPK gave the highest values of Lead and Cadmium.