Impact of Farmyard Manure and Different Doses of Nitrogen on the Availability of Selenium by Spring Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

The objective of the study was to determine the total selenium content and its fractions available to spring barley plants affected by FYM and different doses of nitrogen. Comparison of the results of total soil Se concentration reported in this paper with other findings indicated that analysed soil had a very low selenium content. Such low levels of selenium in soils indicated that plants growing on these soils are deficient in this microelement. The application of manure and nitrogen resulted in the highest amounts of total selenium content in soil, which increased with increasing doses of both fertilizers. Fertilization with manure resulted in an increase of selenate and selenite in soil with increasing doses of manure, but the nitrogen treatment did not effect on the content of this fractions of selenium in soil. The share of Se-phytoavailable fractions in the total selenium content in soil under study ranged from 13.5 to 27.3 % and increased with increasing doses of FYM. Generally, the selenium concentrations in aboveground parts and roots of spring barley increased with increasing doses of FYM, but the application of nitrogen decreased the Se content in the investigated parts of plants.