The response of properties of soil cropped with shell beans and treated with disinfectant and fertiliser during the plant growing season

Disinfectants and fertilisers exert strong impact on soil processes by affecting the structure and the activity of the soil microbial community. Most relevant studies examined these impacts independently, under laboratory conditions and without crop cover. In this study, we have monitored the response of soil chemical, microbial, and biochemical properties to disinfectant and fertiliser treatments in field plots cultivated with beans. The measured properties comprised microbial C and N, asparaginase, gultaminase, urease, and acid phosphomonoesterase activities and contents of organic N, organic C, inorganic N, and inorganic P. We ran four different treatments using different combinations of chemical (metham sodium) and biological disinfectant (a mixture of neem cake and essential oils) and fertilisers (NPK 8-16-24 and cow manure) in plots cultivated with shell beans, while the control soil was neither treated nor cropped with beans. The data were expressed as percentage (%RC) in relation to the control values. The disinfectant and fertiliser treatments had less impact on soil properties compared to bean crop growth (except for microbial C and N, and content of organic C). In comparison to the control, higher activities of urease and asparaginase and content of inorganic N were recorded in bean cropped plots at the stage of seedlings (June), while higher activities of acid phosphomonoesterase and glutaminase and content of organic N were recorded at the stage of plant flowering (August). In October, the values of all properties were higher in the control plots compared to the treated plots. The joint effect of disinfectants x fertilisers affected the response of content of organic C and N and extractable P and glutaminase activity. The %RC of the properties exhibited more negative values in plots treated with chemical disinfectant and chemical fertiliser than in the other treatments. We suggested that the response of soil properties to disinfectants and fertilisers were influenced by the growth of P. vulgaris.