THE EFFECTS OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZATION ON THE CONTENT OF TRACE-ELEMENTS IN CEREAL-GRAINS

To compare the effects of organic manuring and inorganic fertilization, the contents of zinc, copper, iron, manganese and selenium in wheat and oats harvested from a field experiment were analysed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Inorganic fertilization compared to organic manuring increased the content of copper in oats and of manganese in wheat and of zinc and iron in wheat and oats. Organic manuring was more effective for the uptake of copper by wheat, manganese by oats and selenium by both wheat and oats. Inorganic fertilization compared to organic manuring increased the yield of oats, but organic manuring was equally effective in the case of wheat to obtain higher yield. There was no correlation between yield and trace element contents either in wheat or oats.