Assessment of the limiting nutrients for wheat(Triticum aestivumL.) growth using Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS)

The Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) was used as a tool to assess the limiting nutrients for wheat growth. To this effect, two separate greenhouse experiments were conducted to assess the limiting nutrients for wheat growth using soil samples collected from Wolmera district, Ethiopia. The experiments consisted of eight fertilizer treatments, optimum (Opt.), optimum-N (Opt-N), optimum-P (Opt-P), optimum-K (Opt-K), optimum-S (Opt-S), optimum-B (Opt-B), optimum-Zn (Opt-Zn) and control on Nitisols and six fertilizer treatments (Opt, Opt-N, Opt-P, Opt-S, Opt-B, and control) on Vertisols. In Nitisols, dry shoot weight yields were reduced by 93%, 70%, and 50% in the control, Opt-N, and Opt-P treatments, respectively. Whereas the corresponding reductions were 85%, 78%, and 42%, respectively, in Vertisols as compared to the optimum treatment. DRIS results indicated that N is the most limiting nutrient, followed by S, B, and P, while Zn was the least limiting nutrient for wheat production in the two study soils.