Methods of Fertilizer and manure application

1) Solid forms of fertilizer

A) Broadcasting

• Manures and fertilizers are broadcast by hands or machines uniformly on the soil.
• Well decomposed FYM, compost, oil cakes, bone meals, urea, superphosphate, lime are applied by this method.
• The plants cannot utilized manures and fertilizers efficiency by this method.

B) Placement application

i) Plough sole placement: Manure and fertilizers are paced in the plough sole after opening the furrow by the plough. Such furrows are covered immediately during the next run of the plough.

This method is popular in dry soils where there is moisture only in plough sole layer.

ii) Deep placement: This method is adopted in wetland rice field, where nitrogenous fertilizer (ammonium sulphate) is placed deep in the reduced layer to avoid denitrification loss.

iii) Sub soil placement: It is followed in strongly acidic soils where P and K fertilizers are placed in deeper layers by heavy machinery to avoid fixation.

C) Localized placement

i) Contact placement: The small quantities of well decomposed manures, ashes and phosphatic and potassic fertilizers are placed along with seeds during sowing. Seed cum fertilizer drill is used for such placement.

ii) Band placement: In this method both manures and fertilizers are placed in bands on one sides of the row at about 5 cm away from the seed or plant in any direction. There are two types of band placement.

a) Hill placement: This method is applied in wide spaced crops like cotton, castor, cucurbits where manure and fertilizers are placed on both side of the plants only along or across the row but not along the entire row.

b) Row placement: The wide spaced row crops like sugarcane potato, maize, tobacco etc the manure and fertilizers are placed on one or both sides of the row in continuous bands.

iii) Pocket placement: In dry lands and in wide spaced crops like cotton, castor, cassava, cucurbits, chilies etc manures and fertilizers are placed deeper in to the pocket and seeds are sown in the same pocket about 5 cm above the fertilizer and manure or their mixture.

iv) Side dressing: In this method manures and fertilizers are applied along the side of a row or around a plant.

v) Pellet application: The nitrogenous fertilizers are pelleted in various types of mud bolls and placed deep into the soft saturated soils of wet land rice to increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE).

2) Liquid forms of fertilizer

The liquid forms of manures and fertilizers solutions are applied to the soil by using the following methods.

i) Starter solutions: The fertilizer solutions in low concentrations are used for soaking seeds, dipping roots after uprooting or spraying on the seedlings to strengthen the seeds or seedlings for early rooting, establishment and growth.

ii) Foliar application: The fertilizer solutions (nitrogenous and mineral fertilizers) in low concentrations are sprayed to the foliage of the standing crop in the form of spray. The general principle is that the applied nutrients are absorbed by the plant leaves through their natural opening.

iii) Direct application to the soil: Liquid fertilizers such as anhydrous ammonia are applied directly to the soil with special injecting equipment. Liquid manure such as urine, sewage water and shed washing are let in the field.

iv) Application through irrigation water: The water-soluble fertilizers are dissolved and diluted with irrigation water and applied either through surface, sub surface or overhead irrigation. Liquid and slurry manures are also diluted with irrigation water and supplied through surface irrigation.