BORON CONTENT IN FCV TOBACCO GROWN UNDER IRRIGATION IN NORTHERN LIGHT SOILS OF ANDHRA PRADESH

Abstract

FCV tobacco is grown under irrigated conditions in Northern light soils (NLS) of Andhra Pradesh. These soils are sandy to sandy loam in texture with high hydraulic conductivity and low water retentivity, acidic in reaction, very low in organic carbon, medium to high in available phosphorus and low to medium in available potassium. Available boron in these soils is in the range of 0.16 to 0.48 ppm. Boron is one of the important micronutrients essential for normal and healthy growth of tobacco, because of its participation in protein metabolism, alkaloid production, translocation, interaction with elements such as calcium and potassium, and its consequent effect on the yield and quality of tobacco crop (Tso, 1990). Earlier studies by Murthy et al. (1985) revealed that B – content in FCV tobacco grown in Northern light soils of Andhra Pradesh was in the range of sufficiency. However, since the crop is being cultivated continuously over years and also the new high yielding variety Kanchan was introduced, whose requirement of nutrients is very high and also since B – carrying inorganic fertilizers are not being used in raising the crop and as the soils are sandy to sandy loam in nature, there may be chances for B – depletion. In view of all these factors, studies on monitoring of boron were taken up for several years by collecting leaf samples from various locations from farmers’ fields covering entire northern light soil area, the results of which are presented in this paper.