Effect of Barley and Hairy Vetch as Green Manures on Soil Nitrogen and Corn Productivity

Abstract

The utilization of green manures as alternatives to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers is considered a good agricultural practice. So far, many studies on determining effect of incorporation of green manure to paddy soil on change of rice productivity have been conducted in South Korea. However, there have been few studies on examining soil nitrogen (N) and corn productivity in upland soil incorporated with green manure. The objective of this study was to determine effect of single or mixture incorporation of green manures (hairy vetch and barley) to an upland soil on changes of inorganic N in soil and grain yield of corn plant. Single barley (B), single hairy vetch (HV), and mixture of barley and hairy vetch (B+HV) were sown on 2 nd November in 2013 and incorporated to an upland soil on 12 th May in 2014. Corn plant was sown on 12 th May in 2014 and harvested on 25 th August in 2014. Above ground, below ground, and total biomass yields of HV were significantly lower than those of B and B+HV. Even though N concentration in HV was the highest among the treatments, total N input amounts to the soil were not significantly different among the treatments due to the lowest biomass yield of HV. Also, there was no significant difference among the treatments in NH 4 + and NO 3 concentration in soil at corn harvest time. For those reason, there was no significant difference among the treatments in grain yield and N uptake of corn plant at harvest time. Based on the above results, single or mixture of B and HV did not affect changes of soil inorganic N and corn productivity in upland soil.