Department of Plant Sciences

Macro- and micronutrients are both important for growth, nodulation and nitrogen (N2) fixation of soybean, especially when this species is grown under continuous cropping. In China’s continuous soybean systems nutrient uptake and transport as well as diazotrophic N2 fixation had been found to be severely hampered by the incidence of diseases, insect pests or exudates from roots and microorganisms which can be overcome by increased soil nutrient concentrations. In this paper results from a three-year field experiment are presented that was conducted to study the effects of different levels of macronutrients (N, P and K) and micronutrients (Zn, Mn, B, Mo and Mg) on the yield of soybean under continuous and rotation cropping. The results showed that compared to the unfertilized control the application of N fertilizer can increase yields of continuous soybean by 98%, of P by 89%, of K by 26%, and of Zn, Mn, B, and Mg by 17%, 13%, 1% and 15%, respectively.