Exchangeable Aluminum Levels in Two Soils as Related to Lime Treatment and Growth of Six Crop Species1

Abstract

AbstractFifty soil samples were collected from the 12.7 to 15.8‐cm and the 43.2 to 48.3‐cmzones in five randomly selected selected sites for each of two acid glacial till soils to measure the relationship of pH and exchangeable AI. Alfalfa, alsike clover, orchardgrass, timothy, oats and barley were grown at three lime rates on one site of each soil which contained a high level of exchangeable A1 to determine the effects of varying pH and AI on crop yield. The Caribou and Thorndike soils contained an average of 255 and 346 kg/ha of exchangeable AI, respectively, at the 12.7 to 15.8‐cm depth, whereas the levels at 43.2 to 48.3‐cm were 152 and 347. There was significantly less A1 in the subsoil than in the topsoil of the Caribou. When limed rates of 0, 1,469 and 2,938 kg/ha for the Caribou and 0, 2,203 and 4,406 kg/ha for Thorndike soil, the average pH values were 5.03, 5.79 and 6.15, and 5.23, 6.08 and 6.46, respectively. Comparable exchangeable Al values were 196, 33 and 11, and 138, 21 and 19 kg/ha. Dry matter production of alfalfa, alsike clover and barley was significantly less when grown at AI levels greater than 100 kg/ha, whereas dry matter yields of oats, orchardgrass and timothy were uneffected at the above levels of A1. Grain yield of barley was reduced at the highest level of AI in one of the soils.