Nutrients uptake and efficiency evaluation of sugarcane varieties under sandy soil and irrigation condition

Abstract

The objective of this experiment was to study nutrients uptake and nutrients use efficiency such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in sugarcane varieties under sandy soil condition. Field experiment were conducted in dry season at Agronomy field station, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University during Nov 2018 – 2019. Six sugarcane varieties including KK3, KKU99-02, KKU99-03, UT12, UT13 and Kps01-12 were used in this study. Water applied as sugarcane water requirement by drip irrigation and maintain soil moisture at the field capacity (FC) level.  Basal fertilizer application (15-15-15) was applied at a rate of 50 kg/rai and the second time at 6 months after planting (at the rates of 7.36 kg N/ rai and 8.96 kg K₂O/ rai) according to soil analysis. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content in sugarcane were measured at 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months after planting (MAP) and evaluated internal nutrient use efficiency. The results revealed that UT12 variety had the highest nitrogen phosphorus and potassium uptake at 4 and 6 MAP but not significantly different with KKU99-02 variety. In addition, at the harvesting (12 MAP), UT12 variety provided the highest nitrogen uptake but not significantly different with KK3 and KPS01-12 varieties. Besides, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium use efficiency were not statistically different among sugarcane varieties in sandy soil under irrigation condition. However, under sufficient water condition, sugarcane uptake nitrogen approximately 30-70 kg/rai, phosphorus 10-19 kg/rai and potassium 50-100 kg/rai. The internal nutrient use efficiency value such as IE_N had around 154 - 234, IE_P 619-776 and IE_K 120-164 (kg / kg).