Effect of Sowing Environment and Varieties on Soil Fertility and Nutrient Uptake of Rainfed Wheat under Sub-tropical Conditions

A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of sowing dates and varieties on soil fertility and nutrient uptake of wheat crop (Triticum aestivum L.) under sub-tropical conditions. The experiment was conducted at the Research Farm, Advanced Centre for Rainfed Agriculture (ACRA), Rakh-Dhiansar of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu-India during the Rabi season of 2018–19. The experiment was carried out for six dates of sowing and three varieties with three replications. Initial readings for available nitrogen (165.00 kg/ha) were low, phosphorous (13.75 kg/ ha) and potassium (112.00 kg/ha) were found medium in the soil. The soil class was found sandy loam having neutral pH (6.78) and organic carbon with a value of 2.4 g/kg and EC (0.16 dS/m). The soil physico- chemical parameters viz pH, EC and OC as well as available N, P and K content of soil after harvest of crops did not show much of variations and thus failed to show any significant difference among varieties and sowing environments. N, P and K uptake in wheat after harvest significantly differed with wheat varieties and sowing environments while the interaction effects of varieties and sowing environments found to be non-significant. However, wheat variety JAUW-598 removed significantly higher amounts of N, P and K uptake by wheat grain and straw as compared to wheat variety PBW-175. As regards the sowing environments, 31^st October sown wheat crop removed significantly highest amounts of N, P and K uptake by wheat grain and was followed by 15^th November sown wheat crop whereas significantly lowest N, P and K uptake by wheat grain was removed by 14^th January sown wheat crop and was followed by 30^th December sown wheat crop. Almost a similar trend was observed with respect to nutrient uptake (NPK) by wheat straw as a result of differential times of planting.