Production of Oxalic Acid as Influenced by the Application of Organic Residue and Its Effect on Phosphorus Uptake by Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in an Inceptisol of North India

In the present experiment, an effort was made to explore the possibility of utilizing the organic residue i.e. press mud and bagasse byproducts generated from sugar industries to enhance the P uptake by different varieties of wheat. The experiment was conducted with five varieties of wheat (HD 2687, HD 2733, HD 2643, HD 2932 and HD 2894) and three levels of organic residue (a mixture of press mud, bagasse and rice straw in 1:1:1 ratio) i.e. 0, 5 and 10 t/ha. The addition of organic residue had resulted in the production of oxalic acid by the crop. Higher oxalic acid content (9.21 µg/g) was produced by the variety HD 2687 at 60 days after sowing which resulted in the mobilization of immobile soil P and helped in increasing the uptake of P by the crop. The P uptake increased by about 77 % in the treatment that received the organic residue applied @ 10 t/ha over control. It was concluded that organic residue from sugar industries could be used to utilize to mobilize the native soil P to overcome the problem of phosphorus fixation in soils in future.