2 Productivity of resources on acid soils occupying one fourth of the total area in India is abysmally low. Lime is applied to such soils with the primary objective of increasing the productivity of crops by enhancing the availability of native and applied plant nutrients. Greenhouse pot experiments and laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of lime and boron (B) on the availability of nutrients in soils and their uptake by plants. The application of lime enhanced the available nitrogen (N,), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), and zinc (Zn) content in soils, which was reflected in their uptake by sunflower (Helianthus annus).On the contrary, availability of copper (Cu), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) in soil was reduced due to liming. Sunflower responded very well in terms of dry matter yield to B application to the extent of 175% and 188% under 1 and 2 mg kg −1 applied levels of B, respectively. Dry matter yield of sunflower was reduced to the tune of 29.2 and 42.7% under 2/3 and 1 lime requirement (LR), respectively, over control. Lime application at 1/3 LR with 2 mg kg −1 of applied B emerged as an optimum combination in acid soils.

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Studies on the effect of c h a n g i n g the e n v i r o n m e n t s of paddy roots on the uptake of zinc, m a n g a n e s e and iron S u m m a r yThe results of the present investigation revealed that the magnitude of the potential is high in the case of oxygen gas treatment and low potential has been observed under hydrogen gas treatment. The uptake of Zn is reduced under hydrogen and hydrogen plus nitrogen gas treatments. The plants growing under reduced condition take up less Zn than the plants growing under drought or upland condition. The uptake of Fe and Mn fall gradually as we proceed from hydrogen to oxygen gas treatment in the nutrient solution. The lowest uptake of Fe and Mn have been observed under oxygen gas treatment for all the varieties.