Residual phosphorus availability after soil application of different organic waste in varying soil P status soils

Transformations of applied phosphorus (P) fertilizer to inaccessible residual soil P is the main cause of inadequate P availability to plants in the majority of the cultivated soils. This study investigated the effect of organic wastes (rice-residue biochar, farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure (PM), green manure (GM), and wheat straw (WS) on residual-P mobilization and its bioavailability in maize crops under different P status soils. Surface soil samples of ‘medium-P’ (12.5–22.5 kg P ha⁻¹) and ‘high-P’ (22.5–50.0 kg P ha⁻¹) status soils were collected from a long-term differential P fertilization experiment on maize-wheat rotation and were subjected to examine P adsorption/desorption, phosphatase activity and microbial biomass P (MBP) after incubation with organic amendments of varying elemental composition. The incorporation of organic manures decreases P sorption with maximum decrease in FYM-treated soils, indicating increased P concentration in soil solution. In contrast, WS due to its wider C/P ratio increased P sorption and did not produce any significant impact on the bioavailability of P. High-P status soils witnessed lower P sorption than medium-P soils. The MBP increased in the order of PM > FYM > GM > WS > biochar irrespective of soil P status. The availability and mobility of residual-P with FYM and PM was significantly higher than that of residual-P from biochar, GM and WS. Organics with wider C/P ratio immobilize bioavailable P in the short term regardless of soil P status.