~ 1568 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2019; 8(4): 1568-1572 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2019; 8(4): 1568-1572 Received: 03-05-2019 Accepted: 07-06-2019 Deepak Pandey Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agronomy, G.B.P.U.A. & T. Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Amit Bhatnagar S.R.O., Department of Agronomy, G.B.P.U.A. & T. Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Subhash Chandra Chief Scientist, Department of Agronomy, G.B.P.U.A. & T. Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Samarth Tewari Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agronomy, G.B.P.U.A. & T. Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Correspondence Deepak Pandey Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agronomy, G.B.P.U.A. & T. Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Soil nutrient balance under influence of differential placement of fertilizer doses and potassium splitting in maize ( Zea mays L.) Deepak Pandey, Amit Bhatnagar, Subhash Chandra and Samarth Tewari Abstract Nutrient management of crops influences the nutrient balance of soil. A faulty nutrient management strategy leading to imbalance in soil nutrient status could adversely affect the crop yields in long term. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of different nutrient management strategies on nutrient balance of soil. Nutrient management strategies included K application methods (100% K as basal and 50% K as basal+ 50% split at earthing up), NPK doses (eight doses with each nutrient at 75 and 100% of recommended level) in differential fertilizer placement method (50% fertilizers at 5cm depth in seed furrows and 50% at 10-12 cm depth) along with a farmers’ practice (fertilizer application in seed furrows at 5 cm depth with whole K as basal). Apparent loss of N and P was found higher in whole basal K application treatment while net loss was higher in K split application. But split application of K resulted in higher apparent and net nutrient balance in soil. Among the fertilizer doses 100% NPK dose exhibited the highest net balance of N,P and K. Differential placement of fertilizers with and without K split application resulted in higher apparent and net balance of nutrients in soil. Therefore, split application of K and 100% NPK dose at two different depths (50% at 5 cm in seed zone and 50% at 10-12 cm) can minimize nutrient losses from soil. Keywords: Maize, nutrient balance, differential placement, K split, nutrient dose Introduction Maize is a versatile crop and it has numerous domestic and industrial uses. It is being rotated with various crops primarily wheat, making maize-wheat the third most important cropping system of India after rice-wheat and rice-rice (Farmers’ portal, GOI). Because of its great production capacity it requires large amount of nutrients than most of the other cereals. Continuous growing of maize crop can deplete soil fertility if nutrient management is not given due attention. Chemical fertilizers are essential inputs for modern crop production to fulfill nutrient demand of crop. With increase in production and productivity of crops the nutrient demand has also increased markedly shifting the nutrient balance towards the negative side in most of the Indian soils (Tandon, 2007) [14] . Crop cultivation without judicious use of nutrients may adversely affect the sustainability of agriculture system. Therefore, a quantitative knowledge of nutrient depletion from soils may be helpful in selecting appropriate nutrient management strategies. Most of the farmers apply heavy dose of nutrients as basal at the time of sowing of crop. But basal application of K fertilizers at sowing causes its fixation and reduces its availability. Split application of K reduces its fixation and increases its availability and use efficiency (Kolar and Grewal, 1994 and Romheld and Kirkby, 2010) [6, 11] . Fertilizers should be applied in such a way that some amount may become available for early growth and remaining in later growth stages of crop. Since P and K are likely to fix into the soil hence their band placement helps to reduce the fixation and increases their availability (Farmaha et al., 2013 and Fernández and White, 2012) [1, 3] . Beneficial effect of fertilizer placement at differential depth in soil has been reported by many researchers. Differential fertilizer application and splitting of potassium can reduce the nutrient fixation into soils, therefore more amount of nutrients may become available which may be used efficiently by crops plants and thus, may result in nutrient economy (Mandal and Thakur, 2010) [8] . A negative nutrient balance in soil can be minimized by adopting such type of nutrient management practices. Appropriate nutrient management strategies must be adopted in maize for maintaining soil fertility. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate various nutrient management strategies for obtaining a good crop response without disturbing the soil nutrient balance.