INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURAL SULPHUR AND ORGANIC MATTER ON THE GROWTH OF CORN (ZEA MAYS L.) AND LEAVES CONTENT OF SOME NUTRITIOUS ELEMENTS

Abstract

A research teamwork conducted this field experiment in silty loam soil at spring of 2018 in the College of Agriculture’s Research Station, University of Anbar. The treatments consisted of two agri-sulphur (AS) levels (0, and 2 Mg. ha-1), three organic matter (OM) sources of sheep manure (SM), cattle refuse (CR), and wheat straw (WS), as well as control treatment (CT) (zero addition). They added as mixture with soil (5%). The objective is to investigate effects of those treatments and their interactions on the growth indicators of corn, NPK (nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus) content of leaves, and some chemical properties of soil after the end of experimental work. The factorial experiment contained three replications distributed according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The results indicted significant superiority of AS on the mean of plant height (PLH) and green dry weight (GDW) with values of (122.8 cm and 432 g.plant-1) respectively, whereas there were a significant decrease in soil electrical conductivity (EC) of 6.8 dS.m-1 and potential of hydrogen (pH) of (7.3). On the other hand SM highly affected PLH, LA (leaf area), and K content significantly to reach (126.9 cm, 490 g, and 1.240%) respectively. The CR significantly affected on N, P concentrations of (0.590 and o.110%) successively. Meanwhile WS affected on LA to reach its maximum value of 517.2 dcm2, whereas there was a significant decrease in EC at CR treatment only to reach 6.4dS.m-1 with decline ratio of 16.88% compared with CT.