Assessment of the relative agronomic effectiveness of phosphate rocks under glasshouse conditions

Abstract

Six phosphate rocks (PRs) of varying reactivities were compared with monocalcium phosphate (MCP) in a glasshouse experiment growing perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne cv. Nui) as the test plant on four soils of contrasting P sorption capacity and exchangeable Ca. The cumulative dry matter yield over 10 harvests showed a significant response to P application in all soils. Based on relative yield and P uptake, MCP was the most effective P fertilizer followed by the reactive phosphate rocks, which were superior to the unreactive rocks in all soils. The relative agronomic effectiveness (RAE) and substitution ratio (SR) of individual PR fertilizers, calculated with respect to MCP using the methods of ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ comparison, respectively, were similar over a range of fertilizer rate. There was a decline or slight increase in the performance of PRs with time in the low P sorption soils but a consistent increase in the high P sorption soils. Some initial influence of exchangeable Ca content of the soils on the relative performance of PRs was also observed. Generally the PRs performed better in high P sorption soils than low P sorption soils and in low exchangeable Ca soils than high exchangeable Ca soils.