Effect of boron fertilization on soil chemical properties, nutrients status in the soil and yield of crops under cauliflower-cowpea okra sequence in North East India

This field investigation was conducted to assess the implication of the direct and residual effect of the applied differential level of boron on the dynamics of the soil chemical properties, nutrient status in soil and yield of crops under cauliflower–cowpea-okra cropping sequence in an Inceptisol of North East India. The imposed treatments comprise five levels of boron viz., 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 & 2.0 kg ha−1 with four replications. To assess the direct effect of boron fertilization in soil, cauliflower crop was grown as a test crop. While for further assessment of concomitant residual effects of boron fertilization, cowpea and okra were grown as a test crop wherein boron fertilization was phased out in both the crops. The recommended dose of NPK fertilizer along with FYM was uniformly applied to all the crops in the cropping sequence. The experimental findings showed that amongst the applied differential levels of boron, application of 2 kg B ha−1 was realized as the most prominent boron dose responsible for increasing the maximum content of soil chemical properties, nutrient status in soil and yield of crops while the control plots recorded the lowest for all the three crops in the sequence. Principal component analysis executed in respect of soil chemical properties and soil nutrient status in cauliflower-cowpea-okra sequence explained the data variation to the tune of 77.03%, 76.52% and 70.74% of the total variability. Similarly, multiple linear regressions performed to figure out the best fitting model showed that response variable potassium attributed the highest up to 52.05% in augmenting yield of cauliflower while nitrogen accounted for 72.04% in cowpea and zinc contributed 89.55% in okra, respectively. Overall, the present findings indicated thatapplication of 2 kg B ha-1 was found to be the best treatment in improving the soil chemical properties, nutrient status in soil and yield of crops under cauliflower–cowpea- okra cropping sequence.