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Lab Report

Introduction

In order to develop an understanding of the research question, research must be conducted

applying the scientific method. The research will seek to understand the maize yield from

arable and non arable soils using nitrogen fertilizers. A comparison will be made to determine

the results of the experiment.

Purpose

The research was conducted to study the variation of the yield with the variation of

nitrogen fertilizer used on both arable and non-arable sandy loam soil.

Introduction

Plants need the minerals from the soil to grow and the producing capacity of the soil is

directly proportional to amount of minerals present in the soil, particularly nitrogen. Thus to

produce more grains we need to add more nitrogen from organic or inorganic fertilizers.

There have also been cases when the excess of nitrogen fertilizers have decreased the yield

from crops.

Hypothesis

The first hypothesis is the use of fertilizers will increase the yield of crops. The second

hypothesis is the excessive use of fertilizers would decrease the yield of crops.

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Methodology

In order to find the variation in the yield of crops with nitrogen fertilizers, the researcher

conducted an experiment on both the arable and non arable soils used for producing maize.

The yield without the fertilizers was noted down and then fertilizers 20 Kg per100 acres were

added to both the soils and yield was again noted down. Then the amount of fertilizers was

increased by 20 Kg per100 acres and the same process continued till the amount of fertilizers

reached 180 Kg per 100 acres. The results for both the arable and non arable soils were noted

separately.

Results

The yield of maize without the use of fertilizer was 15.6 mg of dry mass per 100 acres per

year for sandy loam soil and it was 8 mg of dry mass per 100 acres per year for arable soil.

The highest yield was 20.8 for the arable soil and 21.8 for non arable sandy loamy soil with

the amount of fertilizer used in both the cases being 140 Kg per100 acres. Both the soils had

a maize yield of 20.1 when the amount of fertilizers used was 180 Kg per100 acres.

Discussion

The use of fertilizers showed more benefits for the arable soils than for non arable soils as

the yield increased from yield increased from 8 to 20.8 with the use of nitrogen fertilizers.

The yield of maize kept increasing with the increase in the amount of fertilizers proving the

first hypothesis. The researcher also proved the second hypothesis that any increase in the

amount of fertilizers from being 140 Kg per100 acres was damaging the yield of crops and

hence concluded that 140 Kg per100 acre was the perfect amount of nitrogen fertilizer to be

used.

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