Influence of various fertilizer systems and their aftereffects in a crop rotation course of a permanent experimental plot on soil agrochemical indices dynamics

Abstract

The research goal was to study how different fertilizer management strategies affected the dynamics of the agrochemical indices of meadow brown bleached soil in a crop rotation course in a long-term stationary agrochemical experiment. The research findings on different fertilizer systems and their effects from 2022 through 2024 are discussed. The studied long-term fertilizer application strategies positively affected the content of the major nutrients and humus in the soil in the agrochemical permanent experiment at the Federal Research Center of Agro-Biotechnologies of the Far East named after A.K. Chayka. This confirmed the effectiveness of fertilizer application, especially compound fertilizers, to increase fertility of meadow brown bleached soil. The highest content of labile phosphorus from 2022 through 2024 was observed in the variant with integrated fertilizer system which included the application of manure, lime, and a double NPK rate. The level of labile phosphorus was considered to be enhanced in 2022 and 2023 and high in 2024 (compared to a low and very low level in the control). In 2023, significant improvement (by 45.5%) in the phosphorus regime of the soil was found in the variant without fertilizer application as compared to 2022. This could be explained by the positive effect of green manure (wheat + common vetch) in the crop rotation. Similar to the phosphorus regime, the most favorable potassium regime was observed in the variants after compound fertilizer application with a single or double NPK rate. The soil was sub-acid (the pH value was 5.4-5.5 on average over the three years) after the systematic application of compound fertilizer with a single and double NPK rate. Therefore, the use of the mineral fertilizers did not lead to soil acidification. The humus content increased from 3.0 to 3.2% (from a low to an intermediate level) on average over the years of research.