EFFECT OF MANGANESE AND SULPHUR FERTILIZATION ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF ONIONS GROWN ON ALKALINE LOW MOOR PEAT SOIL

The area of peatlands in Poland exceeds 1.2 million hectares and about 90 percent of them are classified as low moor, eutrophic peats or mucks.
Research work carried out at the Research Institute of Vegetable Crops in Skierniewice and at the institute’s experimental farm Rekowo in Gdansk province, as well as extension work cause that the area of vegetables grown on muck soils in Poland increases rapidly.
This is mainly due to the high producing potential of these soils.
The yields of onions and other vegetable crops obtained on properly fertilized muck soils outrank almost twice yields of these crops grown on mineral soils /1/.

The work conducted so far was cofined mainly to the prevailing type of muck soils with a pH of about 6. Some of the muck soils however, located mainly in central Poland, with a pH ranging from 7–7,5 are considered as not well adapted for onion cultivation.

There is evidence in literature that neutral or alkaline organic soils are often deficient in manganese and that soil or plant treatment with this element as well as lowering the soil pH by sulphur addition secured normal plant growth /2, 3, 4, 5, 6/.

This paper reports on work that was undertaken to study the growth and yield of onions on an alkaline muck soil under conditions of manganese fertilization in form of soil and leaf treatment and sulphur fertilization.

Symposium on Peat in Horticulture

J. Rumpel, J. Robak

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1975.50.4