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

Table 5

Combined effects of N + P fertilizer rates with tef crop varieties on soil moisture content (SMC) determined at the different growth stages (sampling dates) in the 2013 cropping season in the Dura area, northern Ethiopia.

Treatment	SMC by sampling date (days after sowing, DAS)						Average^#	Significance^¶
	0 DAS	33 DAS	49 DAS	64 DAS	84 DAS	120 DAS
F1V1	28.0 a	49 b	40 cd	31 b	21 cd	13 c	30 cd
F1V2	28.0 a	46 cd	35 g	26 de	17 ef	11 d	27 de
F1V3	28.7 a	52 a	43 ab	35 a	25 a	16 a	33 a
F2V1	27.0 b	47 c	38 e	28 c	18 de	11 de	29 d
F2V2	26.7 b	44 e	33 h	23 e	15 gh	9 fg	25 fg
F2V3	27.3 b	49 b	42 b	31 b	22 b	14 bc	31 bc
F3V1	26.0 c	44 e	36 fg	26 d	16 f	8 g	26 ef
F3V2	25.7 c	41 f	31 i	21 f	13 i	5 ij	23 h
F3V3	26.7 b	47 c	39 de	29 bc	20 c	10 ef	29 d
F4V1	25.3 cd	41 f	33 h	23 e	13 i	6 hi	24 gh
F4V2	25.0 d	38 g	29 j	18 g	10 j	4 i	21 i
F4V3	25.7 c	44 e	36 fg	26 d	16 fg	8 g	26 ef

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 tested for the treatment combined effects on SMC determined across the sampling dates. F, fertilizer rate: 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.