Liming of an acid soil and growth of asparagus crowns
2002
Krarup, A. | Krarup, C.
Previous information had indicated that soil pH could be limiting asparagus growth on the volcanic soils of southern Chile. The hypothesis was tested by seeding asparagus cv. Atlas, on 30 L pots filled with a silty loam Andisol having pH 5.7 and 13.7% organic matter and amended with increasing rates of limestone (0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 t/ha). Different growth parameters of the resulting crowns were measured after six months. Results indicate that liming increases shoot and root length, root and bud number, shoot, root and total fresh weight, but not shoot number or root dry weight, producing progressively larger plants with increasing rates. Limestone also significantly changed soil conditions increasing soil pH up to 7.5 and exchangeable calcium and magnesium, from around 4 to 23 and from 0.44 to 0.67 meq/100g ds, respectively, and decreasing available aluminum from 0.17 to 0.01 meq/100g ds. Aluminum saturation dropped from 4.90 to 0.01%. A minimum application of 4 to a maximun of 8 t of limestone per hectare, depending on cost/benefit analysis, should be applied to produce better crowns in such acid soils.
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