Table 4 Initial fertility status of the experimental site.

1

Mechanical analysis

Sand (%)

64.9

Hydrometer method¹²²

Silt (%)

21.0

Clay (%)

14.1

Textural class

Sandy-loam

2

Physical properties

Bulk density (Mg m⁻³)

1.57

Veihmeyer and Hendrickson¹²³

3

Chemical properties

Organic carbon (%)

0.42

Walkley and Black method¹²⁴

Available N (kg ha⁻¹)

137.9

Alkaline permanganate method¹²⁵

Available P (kg ha⁻¹)

12.9

Olsen’s method¹²⁶

Available K (kg ha⁻¹)

302.8

Flame photometer method¹²⁴

pH (1:2.5 soil: water ratio)

8.0

Beckman’s pH meter¹²⁷

EC (dSm⁻¹) (1:2 soil: water ratio)

0.46

Richards¹²⁸

4

Biological properties

Soil microbial biomass carbon (µg SMBC g soil⁻¹)

183.4

Nunan et al.¹²⁹

Dehydrogenase activity (µg TPF g soil⁻¹ day⁻¹)

28.3

Casida et al.¹³⁰

Alkaline phosphatase activity (µg PNP g soil⁻¹ h⁻¹)

185.4

Tabatabai and Bremner¹³¹

Acid phosphatase activity (µg PNP g soil⁻¹ h⁻¹)

29.2

Tabatabai and Bremner¹³¹