EVALATION OF ZINC AVAILABILITY AND ITS CONTENT IN MAIZE PLANT OF SOME BABYLON SOILS

Abstract

Abstract: The study was conducted to evaluate the availability of zinc in some Babylon soils and its content in corn plants, thirteen different locations were selected which were corn grown in their soils to take samples from both soils and plants. The locations were divided to most geographical units of the Governorate soils with total represent of 27 units, a linear equations were used to describe the relationship between the studied parameters and some soil properties.The results showed that, the availability of zinc ranged from 0.32 to 3.70 with average of 0.82 mg Kg-1. Zinc content in dry matter of plant was ranged from 10.14 to 77.90 with average of 23.44 mg Kg-1. The results revealed that, the percentage of locations which their soils suffer from zinc deficiency were 62%, these locations were (A, B, C, D, E, E, G, H, I, J, L, U, V, W, X, Y, Z1, Z2) whereas the percentage of locations which showing availability soils was 51%. The highest percentage observed for soil of locations (A, D, G, H, I, J, W) which represented within Al-Kafil and AL-Mashrooa were 73 and 70% respectively.The results showed also a negative linear relation between available zinc and zinc content in plant with total and active carbonate minerals, whereas, a positive linear relation was found with cation exchange capacity (CEC), however no significant relation was found neither with pH nor with organic matter, clay and silt content. We conclude that most of Babylon soils were poor in zinc availability and the corn plants growing there suffer zinc deficiency, Plant response will be achieved by adding zinc fertilizer.