The effect of soil amendments and soil structure on minimizing constraints of lowland soils on growth of mungbean and peanut under glasshouse condition

Crop diversification following wet season rice is one avenue of increasing agricultural productivity in Cambodia. Lowland rice soils have numerous physical and chemical constraints to non-rice crop production. A glasshouse pot experiment was conducted during dry season from January to April 2010 at the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI). An omission pot trial investigated the effect of soil structure, soil fertility, soil pH, lime, and straw mulching on growth of mungbean and peanut. Results showed that at flowering time, the omissions of rice straw mulching and chemical fertilizer application had the largest effect followed by omission of cow manure application on growth of mungbean and peanut, while omission of either lime or disturbed soil structure reduced growth, but the effect was small and not significant. At final harvest stage, the omission of chemical fertilizer application still has the large effect on the total dry matter of mungbean and peanut, followed by lime application and straw mulching