The effect of soil drying on millet

Summary Two tropical soils were collected when moist. Part of the soil was kept moist under aerobic conditions for one week (Treatment A) and the other part air dried over the same period and then remostened (Treatment B). The soils were then sown to millet. Both the yields and percentage nitrogen of the millet were very significantly increased by Treatment B and also the amount of mineral soil nitrogen produced. Additional treatments showed that yield increases were due to increased nitrogen mineralisation and that pathogenic conditions in the moist soil (Treatment A) were not responsible for the low yields.