Summary
To ensure adequate growth of plants on the highly impoverished and erodable surface mined lands, the application of N and P fertilizers by suitable methods is essential. In the present study, five growth chamber experiments were conducted to evaluate the relative efficacy of foliar and spoil application of N and P using alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. var. Erand) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. Manker) as test crops on a freshly exposed coal mine spoil collected from western North Dakota. In general, barley responded to both N and P, but alfalfa mainly to P. Growth responses of barley to foliar or spoil-applied N+P were substantial and similar in magnitude. However, the yields were much higher when the plants received 3–4 sprays of 1.5–2.2% urea, with P supplied through the spoil. Increasing the number of 2.2% urea sprays from 1 to 3 increased the growth response from 40 to 243%. In another study, increasing the concentration of foliar-applied urea from 0 through 1% resulted in further increases in the dry weights of barley at all the levels of spoil-applied (0, 25, 75, 225 μg/g) N.
Foliar sprays of 0.5–1.0% NaH2PO4 increased the dry weights of alfalfa and barley by an average of 366% and 86%, respectively. However, the yield response of alfalfa to spoil-applied P (100 μg/g) was as high as 782% compared to only 117% for barley. Alfalfa responded significantly to increasing concentrations of H3PO4 (0–0.3%) in foliar sprays only in the absence of spoil-applied P. With increasing rates of spoil-applied P, alfalfa yields increased steadily, but additional supply of P sprays caused leaf burning which intensified as the P concentration in sprays increased.
The results of chemical analyses indicated that foliar applications were more effective than soil applications in increasing the concentration of N or P in the plants. Moreover, urea sprays increased the uptake of K, Zn, and Fe in barley, whereas spraying alfalfa with P compounds caused increases in its K and Fe content and decreases in those of Zn and Na. The results of these experiments indicated that the nutritional requirements of plants grown on coal mine spoils can be met through foliar fertilization as effectively as, or better than, through conventional soil fertilization methods.
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Malakondaiah, N., Safaya, N.M. & Wali, M.K. Responses of alfalfa and Barley to foliar application of N and P on a coal mine spoil. Plant Soil 59, 441–453 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02184548
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02184548