The Effects of Different Manurial Treatments on the Yield and Mineral Composition of Winter Lettuce

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Abstract
Summary Lettuce were grown during the winter of 1957–58 on the plots of a long-term manurial experiment in which the treatments had been applied to each crop from 1954 to 1957. Three rates of each of the three nutrients N, P and K were applied either with or without farmyard manure (20 tons per acre per crop) in a 33 × 2 factorial design. The mean yield from the plots which received farmyard manure (FYM) together with fertilizers was more than twice that from the plots which received fertilizers alone; the extra yield came from the greater number of lettuces that reached marketable condition on the former plots and not from an increase in the size of the plants. The date by which 50% of the plants that eventually reached marketable condition had been cut was almost 8 days earlier for the FYM plots than for the no-FYM plots. The different rates and combinations of fertilizers, when applied with FYM, did not produce different yield effects. In the absence of FYM, applications of sulphate of potash and superphosphate each increased yields significantly (P =.0·05); applications of Nitrochalk, however, reduced yields but the reduction just failed to reach significance (P = 0·05). The treatments did not affect the 50% cutting date. Where FYM had been applied, the fertilizer applications did not have differential effects on the mineral composition of the lettuce plants but, on average, there was twice as much potassium in the dry matter of plants (7·8%) as in plants from the no-FYM plus fertilizer plots (3·9%). In the absence of FYM, the fertilizer applications had marked differential effects on the mineral composition of the plants and these effects are discussed in relation to yield.

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