Assessment of agronomic efficacy of phosphatic fertilizers for cotton crop in vertisol using 32P radiotracer technique

A short-term greenhouse pot culture study was carried out to study the agronomy efficacy of P sources for cotton crop in a vertisol. The sources of P were single super phosphate (SSP), diammonium phosphate (DAP) and nitrophosphate tagged with P-32 and applied at three rates (30, 60 and 90 kg P2O5 ha(-1)). The results indicated that the dry matter yield (DMY) of cotton shoot, P uptake, percent P derived from fertilizer (%Pdff) and A-value of the soil increased significantly with increasing fertilizer rate, whereas the percent fertilizer P utilization (%FUP) was found to be higher at lower fertilizer rates. Among the fertilizer sources SSP was found to be superior in enhancing DMY of cotton, P uptake and %FUP as compared to other fertilizers. %Pdff was found to be at par in SSP and DAP treatments and was significantly higher in comparison to NP and reverse was true in case of A-value of the soil. Results on equivalent ratio showed that SSP and DAP are equally efficient, whereas, 1 kg P as SSP was equivalent to 7.47 kg P as NP. In general, efficacy of phosphatic fertilizers far cotton crop in vertisol was found to be in order of SSP>DAP>NP.