Page 10 - Molecular Soil Biology

Molecular Soil Biology (online), 2011, Vol. 2 No.1, 1-8
ISSN1925-2005 http://msb.sophiapublisher.com
- 7 -
NH4OAc (pH 7) and K concentrations in the extracts
were analyzed by flame photometry (Lu, 2000). Soil
available sulfur (S) was extracted by Ca (H2PO4)2-
HOAc and analyzed by spectrophotometer (Zhao et al.,
2006). Organic matter was determined using the wet
digestion tube method using potassium dichromate as
oxidant (Bu et al., 2010). The total nitrogen content
was measured by the Kjeldahl method (Domene et al.,
2010). The pH was measured as a soil - water slurry
(the weight ratio of soil to water is 1:2.5).
To assess the effects of different levels of SSS on the
cucumber vegetative growth, the plant height was
investigated at different days after transplanting at the
first 7th days, 14th day, 21th day, 28th day, and 35th day,
and the stem diameter was measured at the 35th day
after the planting.
In order to estimate the effects of different SSS on the
cucumber fruit yield, TP (total yield per treatment),
Y/P (fruit yield per plant), No (Number of fruits per
plant), WSF (weight of single fruit) were determined
at the harvesting time.
To assess the organoleptic fruit quality, 6 mature fruits
from each plot were randomly selected every 2 weeks
over the course of the experimental period. The
vitamin C, total soluble sugars (TSC) and total soluble
proteins (TSP), and crude fiber (CF) were determined
according to previously described methods (Nagao et
al., 2005; Massot et al., 2010; Tewari et al., 2008).
3.3 Statistical Analysis
The data were statistically analyzed by the SPSS
software (version17.0) and Origin (verision8.0). All
data sets were tested for normal distribution and
variance homogeneity. In case of homogenous sample
variances, calculated means were compared by
Duncan (D) and in the case of non-homogenous
variances by Tamhane (T) test. The level of statistical
significance was accepted when p < 0.05.
Authors’ contributions
In this paper, ZQD is responsible for overall investigation. Experiments and
original data collecting were done by JJZ and XL. Data analysis and
manuscript preparation was completed by JJZ. Authors sincerely thank to
two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments and revising advice to
this paper.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Special Fund for Agro-scientific
Research in the Public Interest (200903011). The authors sincerely
appreciate Dr. Y. H Wu from Institute of Soil Science, CAS, for his
constructive comments on this manuscript.
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