Available Micronutrient Status of Sunflower Growing Soils of Nagpur District (Maharashtra)

The present investigation was carried out to study the status of major micronutrients in sunflower growing soils of Nagpur district during the year 2009-2010. For this purpose in 6 profile 32 soil samples were collected from two tehsils (2 villages from each tehsil) of sunflower growing soils of Nagpur district. From each village soil sample was collected and subjected to laboratory for analyzing for some chemical properties and status of available micronutrients viz., Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu. The correlation co-efficient between chemical properties and available nutrients were worked out. The study revealed that the soils are neutral to alkaline in reaction, safe in limit of electrical conductivity low to high in content of organic carbon and noncalcareous to calcareous in nature. The soil samples were deficient in available Zn, medium to sufficient in available Mn and sufficient in available Fe and Cu. The data showed that available Zn had significant negative relationship with pH (-0.125^*) and CaCO₃ (-0.97^*) and significant positive with EC (0.149^**). Available Fe had significant and positive correlation with EC (0.135^**) and O.C. (0.106^*) and significant negative with CaCO₃ (-0.141^*). Available Mn had negative and significant correlation with EC (-0.130^**) while Cu had positive significant relation with EC (0.101^*) and O.C. (0.170^**).