161 CALCINED CLAY AND ALUMINA AMENDMENTS INCREASE PO4 AND K RETENTION OF SOILLESS CONTAINER SUBSTRATES

Abstract

Soilless substrates have little capacity to sorb PO4. One way to reduce PO4 leaching during production is to increase the substrate retention of PO4. Adsorption isotherms were created at 25 C for alumina (aluminum oxide); the 2:1 calcined clays arcillite (montmorillonite plus illite) and attapulgite.; and a medium of 70 peat: 30 perlite using solutions of KH2PO4 at rates of P ranging from 0 to 20000 μg·ml-1. Material sorbed at the rate resulting in maximum P adsorption was then desorbed 22 times. Sorbing concentrations necessary to establish an equilibrium P concentration of 10 μg·ml-1 in the substrate solution were estimated from these curves. Materials were-charged with P at these estimated rates and evaluated in a greenhouse study in which each material was tested at 10 and 30% by volume of a 70 peat: 30 perlite substrate used to produce Dendranthema × grandiflorum `Sunny Mandalay'. Phosphate, K, and pH were determined on unaltered soil solutions biweekly throughout the cropping cycle and foliar analyses were determined on tissue collected at mid- and end-crop. Isotherm and greenhouse data indicated that alumina, arcillite, and attapulgite effectively retained and slowly released K as well as PO4 over time. Alumina was most effective at retaining P, sorbing 16800 μg/cc compared to 3100 and 7800 μg P sorbed/cc for arcillite and attapulgite, respectively, when sorbed at P concentrations resulting in an equilibrium concentration of approximately 10 μg P/ml.