Nitrogen and Phosphorus Uptake and Partitioning in Finger Millet as Influenced by Phosphorus Fertilization

Abstract

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) production in Eastern Africa remains low due to a variety of factors including soil nutrient depletion. As intensive row-crop production evolves, improvements in managing soil nutrient quantity and availability of less renewable nutrients like P becomes increasingly important. The yields in Kenya are typical of low input systems ranging below 1.0 t ha-1 against a potential of 5.0 t ha-1 in a season. In an attempt to overcome this constraint, On-station experiments were conducted at the Alupe research station during the long and short rain seasons of 2015 to investigate the influence of phosphate fertilizer rates (0, 12.5, 25 and 37.5 kg ha-1 P 2 O 5) on nutrient uptake and partitioning in finger millet. Partitioning of N and P was significantly influenced (P<.05) by phosphate rates and variety. Most phosphorus and nitrogen content was

Effect of Phosphorus Levels on Soil Properties and Plant Tissues of Two Nerica Varieties

“…Phosphorus availability or unavailability in the rhizosphere to plants critically affected the uptake of nitrogen and other nutrients. That was an indicator that plants' uptake of phosphorus influenced the uptake of nitrogen to a small extent, but to a large extent its uptake may have been influenced by other factors including site of application, time of application, stage of development, interactions with other compatible or antagonistic mineral elements during crop growth, as well as stoppage of NH 4+ -N conversion to NO 3--N that would necessitate "less loss of soil nitrogen and more nitrogen plant uptake [15,17].…”