Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) is the most important legume used for industrial purposes. The soybean seed inoculation is an agricultural measure that involves the application of a bacterial formulation that will be used to improve certain qualities of the crop seed. Nitrogen fertilisation in soybean is a complex procedure because of the symbiosis of soybean with the nitrifying bacteria. Zeolite is a rock of volcanic origin and is often used in agriculture for its ability to absorb nutrients, which are later slowly emitted for the needs of the plant. In a field experiment on soybean (variety ES Mentor), which was carried out in the experimental field of the Secondary School for Agriculture and Biotechnics in 2018, we analysed how the inoculation of seeds and the use of zeolite and/or mineral nitrogen affect the morphology of the plant, grain production and other crop factors. Our results show that the use of inoculated seed was imminent for the formation of nodules on soybean roots since the nodules were not forming in non-inoculated seeds. The inoculations also had a beneficial effect on the majority of the measured morphology; furthermore, mineral nitrogen also had the greatest positive effect on the morphology. Soybean seed production reached 4,722 kg/ha when using inoculated soybean seeds, which is 20.2% more than when non-inoculated seeds were used. What is more, the inoculation increased the absolute mass by 11.7%. In regard to the fertilization used, the highest yields were observed in the use of zeolite, namely where 600 kg zeolite/ha was added to the seedbed during the sowing process (4,382 kg/ha) and where 5,000 kg zeolite/ha was added to the seedbed. The use of mineral nitrogen and the control sample (no fertilization) resulted in 0.6 to 3.4% smaller yield.
|
