Assessment of some Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Affected by Different Methods of Soil Fertility Management

Imbalanced fertilization is one of the most important problems of wheat production in Iran. This project aimed to assess the effects of soil fertility management based on plant nutrition principles and compare it with farmer's conventional methods in wheat fertilization. The experiment was carried out in three wheat fields (Faghi-Bigloo, Talebabad, and Hassan-Ahabad) located in West Azerbaijan province, during the 2014-2015 growing season. Experimental treatments included farmer's conventional (FCA) and optimum fertilization (OFA) approaches. Management of wheat nutrition for FCA treatment was based on the experiences of wheat growers and for OFA treatment based on the assessment of the field's soil fertility status, using soil test and the latest scientific achievements. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in grain yield characteristics between FCA and OFA treatments (p<0.05). The average grain yield for FCA and OFA was 5601 and 6667 kg ha-1, respectively. With OFA, grain yield improved by 18.96%. The current approach also increased straw weight by 17.58, 12.30, and 7.67% in Faghi-Bigloo, Talebabad, and Hassan-Ahabad, respectively. These values were significant (p<0.05). Moreover, OFA improved the harvest index in experimented fields, except for Faghi-Bigloo. These values were equal to 9.21% and 4.06% for Talebabad and Hassan-Ahabad, respectively. The grain protein content for FCA obtained 11.79%. OFA enhanced it by 15.58% (p<0.05). Additionally, for FCA, the molar ratio of phytic acid to zinc in the grains was in the range of 45-75. With OFA, this ratio was significantly reduced to less than 25 (optimum limit). Generally, it is concluded that soil fertility management based on the principles of plant nutrition is the most accessible solution to achieve optimum crop yields and improve the quality of wheat grains.