Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T23:32:30.918Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of soil and fertilizer P on yields of potatoes, sugar beet, barley and winter wheat on a sandy clay loam soil at Saxmundham, Suffolk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. E. Johnston ,
P. W. Lane ,
G. E. G. Mattingly ,
P. R. Poulton  and
M. V. Hewitt
A. E. Johnston
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ
P. W. Lane
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ
G. E. G. Mattingly
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ
P. R. Poulton
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ
M. V. Hewitt
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts., AL5 2JQ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

During 1899–1964 various levels of 0·5 M sodium bicarbonate-soluble P had been established in an experiment on a sandy clay loam (pH 6·5–7·0) at Saxmundham, Suffolk. Modification made between 1965 and 1968 widened the range of soluble P values to 3–67 mg/kg. Relationships between these soluble P values and yields of potatoes and sugar beet in 1969–74 and cereals in 1970–7 were assessed. Responses by potatoes and sugar beet to freshly applied superphosphate were also determined at each level of soluble P. Residual effects of these dressings and responses to fresh superphosphate between 1974 and 1976 were measured by barley. Two amounts of N were tested on spring barley in 1976–7 and two cultivars of winter wheat were grown in 1977 and yields related to soluble P.

Relationships between yields and soluble P were described by an asymptotic regression equation. This model represented the measured yields well for all crops except barley, in one 4-year-period, when there were insufficient data at low soil P values and a linear regression model was fitted. The asymptotic model was used to estimate plateau yields each year and soluble P values at which yields were less than plateau values by one standard error. Average plateau yields, and associated soluble P values were: potatoes, 43 t/ha and 25 mg P/kg; sugar (from sugar beet) 6·8 t/ha and 20 mg P/kg; spring barley, given 63 kg N/ha, 4·7 t/ha and 25 mg P/kg; barley given 94 kg N/ha, 5·3 t/ha and 33 mg P/kg; winter wheat, 6·5 t/ha and 20 mg P/kg.

The model was further used to estimate responses to dressings of superphosphate at three levels of soluble P (9, 15 and 25 mg/kg) in the soils. Yield responses to 55 kg P/ha were 3·9, 2·1 and 1·8 t tubers/ha and 1·1, 0·3 and 0·0 t sugar/ha, for potatoes and sugar beet respectively, at the three levels of soluble P.

On impoverished soils (soluble P < 10 mg/kg) even the largest fresh applications of broadcast superphosphate did not raise yields to those achieved on enriched soils (soluble P > 25 mg P/kg) in the absence of fresh phosphate.

Soluble P in the soils accounted for much of the within-year variation of yields and estimated reliably and quantitatively the value of phosphate residues derived from both superphosphate and farmyard manure which had been applied in varying amounts and at different times between 1899 and 1976.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 106 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 155 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Archer, F. C., Victor, A. & Boyd, D. A. (1976). Fertilizer requirements of potatoes in the Vale of Eden. Experimental Husbandry 31, 72–79.Google Scholar
Black, R. & Tinker, P. B. (1979). The development of endomycorrhizal root systems. New Phytologist 83, 401–413.Google Scholar
Boyd, D. A. (1965). The relationship between crop response and the determination of soil phosphorus by chemical methods. In Soil Phosphorus. Technical Bulletin 13, pp. 94–102. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Boyd, D. A. & Trist, P. J. O. (1966). The Saxmundham rotation experiments: Rotation II 1899–1952. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 66, 337–339.Google Scholar
Draycott, A. P., Durrant, M. J. & Boyd, D. A. (1971). The relationship between soil phosphorus and response by sugar beet to phosphate fertilizer on mineral soils. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 77, 117–121.Google Scholar
Farrar, K. & Boyd, D. A. (1976). Experiments on the manuring of main crop potatoes on soils of Ross series. Experimental Husbandry 31, 64–71.Google Scholar
Holmes, M. R. J. & Shiles, R. J. (1980). Compound fertilizer placement for potatoes. Fertilizer Research 1, 235–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, A. E., Mattingly, G. E. G. & Poulton, P. R. (1976). Effect of phosphate residues on soil P values and crop yields. I. Experiments on barley, potatoes and sugar beet on sandy loam soils at Woburn. Rothamsted Experimental Station, Report for 1975, Part 2, pp. 5–35.Google Scholar
Kamprath, E. J. & Watson, M. E. (1980). Conventional soil and tissue tests for assessing the phosphorus status of soils. In The Role of Phosphorus in Agriculture (ed. Khasawneh, F. E., Sample, E. C. and Kamprath, E. J.), pp. 433–469. Soil Science Society of America.Google Scholar
Lorenz, O. A. & Vittum, M. T. (1980). Phosphorus nutrition of vegetable crops and sugar beets. In The Role of Phosphorus in Agriculture (ed. Khasawneh, F. E., Sample, E. C. and Kamprath, E. J.), pp. 737–762. Soil Science Society of America.Google Scholar
Mattingly, G. E. G. (1968). Evaluation of phosphate fertilizers. II. Residual value of nitrophosphates, Gafsa rock phosphate, basic slag and potassium metaphosphate for potatoes, barley and swedes grown in rotation with special reference to changes in soil phosphorus status. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 70, 139–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, G. E. G., Johnston, A. E. & Chater, M. (1970). The residual value of farmyard manure and superphosphate in the Saxmundham Rotation II experiment, 1899–1968. Rothamsted Experimental Station, Report for 1969, Part 2, pp. 91–112.Google Scholar
Mattingly, G. E. G. & Talibudeen, O. (1967). Progress in the chemistry of fertilizer and soil phosphorus. In Topics in Phosphorus Chemistry 4, 157–290.Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1979). Fertiliser Recommendations for Agricultural and Horticultural Crops, 92 pp. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Mosse, B., Stribley, D. P. & Le Tacon, F. (1981). Ecology of mycorrhizae and mycorrhizal fungi. Advances in Microbial Ecology 5, 137–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, S. R., Cole, C. V., Watanabe, F. S. & Dean, L. A. (1954). Estimation of available phosphorus in soils by extraction with sodium bicarbonate. United States Department of Agriculture, Circular No. 939, 19 pp.Google Scholar
Rothamsted Experimental Station (1969–1977). Rotation II Experiment, Saxmundham. Yields of Field Experiments, 69/S/RN/2 to 77/S/RN/2.Google Scholar
Warren, R. G. & Johnston, A. E. (1965). Notes on the use of soil analysis for estimating available P in Rothamsted soils. In Soil Phosphorus, Technical Bulletin 13, pp. 30–37. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Webber, J., Boyd, D. A. & Victor, A. (1976). Fertilizers for maincrop potatoes on Magnesian Limestone soils: experiments in Yorkshire 1966–71. Experimental Husbandry 31, 80–90.Google Scholar
Widdowson, F. V., Johnston, A. E. & Penny, A. (1980). Multifactorial experimentation on continuous winter wheat grown on sandy clay soil at Saxmundham, Suffolk. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 94, 155–170.Google Scholar
Williams, R. J. B. & Cooke, G. W. (1965). Measuring soluble phosphorus in soils, comparisons of methods, and interpretation of results. In Soil Phosphorus, Technical Bulletin 13, pp. 84–93. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar