Evaluation of Critical Limits of Potassium

The pot culture experiment was conducted during kharif season 2012 at College of Agriculture, Kolhapur to evaluate the critical limits of potassium in soil and plant for kharif brinjal grown on shrink-swell soils. Soils from eighteen different locations were collected having low (<125 kg K2O ha-1), medium (125-250 kg K2O ha-1) and high (>250 kg K2O ha-1) potassium status. The present investigation was carried out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design with two treatments (viz. 0 and 75 kg K2O ha-1) and two replications. The brinjal crop was harvested at initiation of flowering. The observations of plant height and dry matter yield were recorded. The concentration and uptake of nutrients (N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) by brinjal plant were determined at initiation of flowering. The critical limits of potassium in soil and plant were worked out according to graphical (1965) and statistical (1971) method given by Cate and Nelson.