Soil Moisture Response to Short-Term Inorganic Fertilization on Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) Crop Varieties in Northern Ethiopia

Table 6

Average soil moisture content (SMC) response to the combined effects of N + P fertilizer rates with tef crop varieties using the 2012 and 2013 cropping seasons in the Dura area, northern Ethiopia.

Treatment	SMC by sampling time (days after sowing, DAS)						Average^#	Significance^b¶
	0	33	49	64	84	120
F1V1	29.0 ab	51 b	42 cd	33 b	23 cd	14 c	31 c
F1V2	28.5 b	48 c	37 f	28 e	19 fg	12 de	28 f
F1V3	28.9 ab	53 a	45 ab	37 a	27 a	17 a	34 a
F2V1	28.5 b	49 cd	40 e	30 d	20 ef	12 d	29 e
F2V2	28.4 b	46 d	35 g	25 f	17 h	10 fg	26 h
F2V3	28.7 b	51 b	44 b	33 b	24 bc	15 b	32 b
F3V1	27.5 d	46 d	38 ef	28 e	18 gh	9 g	27 g
F3V2	27.9 cd	43 f	33 i	23 g	15 g	6 ij	24 j
F3V3	28.4 b	49 cd	41 d	31 c	22 d	11 ef	30 d
F4V1	27.2 de	43 e	35 g	25 f	15 i	7 hi	25 i
F4V2	27.0 de	40 f	31 h	20 h	12 j	5 j	22 k
F4V3	27.4 d	46 d	38 ef	28 e	18 gh	9 g	27 g

Values within a column with different letters are significantly different at the probability level (P) ≤ 0.05. Significant at ; significant at . ^#Mean of all sampling dates for each of the treatment combined effects. ^¶Significant level test for the interaction effects on SMC determined across the sampling dates. F, fertilizer rates: F1, 0 N + 0 P; F2, 21 N + 10 P; F3, 41 N + 20 P; F4, 64 N + 25 P; V, tef varieties: V1, Sergen; V2, DZ-cr-387 or Kuncho; V3, Keyih; FV, interaction (combined) effect of fertilizer with variety.