Getahun Alemayehu*, Asmare Melese and Wondwosen Tena
Low soil fertility is a major constraint that limits wheat production in Ethiopia. Application of Potassium (K)fertilizer in the area is limited. This study aimed to assess K status, adsorption capacity of soils andto determine K requirements for wheat. Eight Kebeles from the district were selected. Soil analysisshowed that pH of soils were ranged from neutral to strongly acidic; clayey in texture; low to moderate% OM and total N; moderate to high CEC; medium to very high Ca and Mg and medium to high contentsof K were recorded. The pot experiment laid out was in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with threereplications using Danda’a wheat variety as a test crop. K was determined from filtrate of 2.5 g of soil in25 mL solutions of 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225 and 250 mg/L K. Soils of the experimentalsites showed different K adsorption characteristics and their adsorption rates ranged from 51.82 to70.08%. The highest adsorption rate recorded on vertisols. The adsorption data fitted better toFreundlich model, and used to compute K doses for pot application. The study found that wheat growthand yield parameters were increased as K increased and reached their optimum levels of 148 kg/haand 145 kg/ha of K that produced 3,556 kg/ha and 4,826 kg/ha of wheat at each sites. Internal Krequirements were 0.77% and 0.78% for Godnamamas and Cheki, respectively. Generally, wheat yieldshowed a significant response to K fertilizer.
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