Interaction of soil pH and phosphorus efficacy: Long-term effects of P fertilizer and lime applications on wheat, barley, and sugar beet

• DOI: 10.1007/s13280-017-0970-2
• Publication Date: 2017-11-24T13:41:38Z
• Authors: Sabine von Tucher; Dorothea Hörndl; Urs Schmidhalter
• Keywords: Long-term experiment; Crop Rotation; Arable land

Phosphorus (P), a plant macronutrient, must be adequately supplied for crop growth. In Germany, many soils are high in plant-available P; specifically arable farming, P fertilizer application has been reduced or even omitted the last decade. Therefore, it is important to understand how long these can support sustainable production, and what concentrations of soil required it. We analyzed 36-year long-term field experiment regarding effects different liming rates on growth with rotation sugar beet, wheat, barley. Sugar beet reacted low pH levels more sensitively than which was not significantly affected by application. All three species showed adequate at lower currently recommended levels, if optimized liming. The increase efficacy therefore requires adaptation type-specific optimal level.