Amendment of acid soils using crab shell powder

Abstract

This research was carried out in order to determine the effects of increasing crab shell powder on some macro and micro element content of maize plant under acid soil conditions. For this purpose, Haploxeralf soil was used according to US Taxonomy. The experiment was done under greenhouse conditions with three replications and maize was grown. Four different doses of crab shell powder (0, 5000, 10000 and 15000 kg ha(-1)) were applied to each pot. Nitrogen fertilizer was applied to each pot 200 mg kg(-1) as NH4NO3 whereas phosphorus fertilizer was applied to each pot 100 mg kg(-1) as KH2PO4. According to the results, dry matter amount, N, P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu and Mn contents of maize plant increased with increasing of crab shell powder applications. Potassium content of maize plant decreased with increasing crab shell powder applications while zinc content was not affected. All these increases and decreases were statistically significant at the confidence level of 1 %.