The effect s of different zinc levels and organic sources on wheat growth in a zinc deficient soil under gereenhuse conditions

Zinc deficiency is very widespread nutritional problem in soil and plant. This problem is further aggravated by high soil pH, high lime content, fine texture, and lower levels of organic matter. To avoid losses in shoot and grain yield due to Zn deficiency, different characteristics of organic materials is important to apply in soils. For this purpose, the effects of different levels of Zn (mg Zn kg-1 Zn0 = 0, Zn5 = 5 mg Zn kg-1) manure, leonardite, and leonardite + manure applications on shoot dry matter, and shoot Zn concentrations were determined under greenhouse, and incubated and non-incubated conditions.Under Zn deficiency conditions, amount of shoot dry matter production was found as 1.82 g pot-1, whereas same values were found as 3.82 g pot-1 under sufficient Zn conditions. Shoot dry matter was increased up to 110 % by Zn application compared to no Zn application. The same ratio was determined to be 422 % for stem + grain yield under no incubated conditions in soil. However, the same rates were 9.7% and 11.6% in incubated conditions respectively. This results showed that incubation in soil was reduces the Zn nutrition activity in plant.Plant growth was increased by application of organic material in Zn deficient soil. Adding leonardit, manure and manure + leonardit in soil enhanced dry matter production by 68 %, 104 % and 105 % of wheat, respectively.Shoot Zn concentration in plants was lower under incubated conditions in soil compared conditions to without incubation. Under incubated and not incubated conditions, shoot Zn concentration in plant changed between 6.4-126.2 mg kg-1 and 7.2-55.7 mg kg-1, respectively.It is suggested that organic materials which can easily mineralize, should be used in Zn deficient soil. In this way, the losses from shoot dry matter and grain yield due to Zn deficiency may be prevented