Impact of Fertilization and Soil Phosphorus Status on Phosphorus Leaching from Soil in Vegetable Greenhouse

Abstract

The vegetable utilization rate of phosphorus fertilizer in greenhouse condition was low in the season of fertilizer application, resulting in phosphorus accumulation in the top soil year after year. The risk of phosphorus loss through leaching increased under the circumstance of inappropriate watering management and fertilization. In this study, leaching experiments using columns packed with a greenhouse soil with different soil phosphorus status (low, medium and high levels) were carried out under greenhouse condition to investigate the impact of fertilizer application on phosphorus leaching from greenhouse soil. The fertilization treatments included no fertilizer [CK], organic manure and chemical fertilizer [M+NPK], organic manure [M], chemical fertilizer [NPK]. The vertical migration and leaching loss of soil phosphorus were measured. Results were as follows: (1) total phosphorus (TP) content increased with the extension of leaching time. In the low-level- and medium-level-phosphorus greenhouse soils, TP concentration in the effluent increased with the application of manure; (2) In the high-level-phosphorus greenhouse soil, phosphorus in the effluent from the treatment with the use of fertilizer was the highest TP, with accumulative leaching amount of 2.85 mg in 51 days. The leaching of phosphorus became small after 36 days of leaching experiment. Our study showed that application of manure and chemical fertilizer at proper rates according to soil phosphorus status is beneficial to reduce the leaching loss of phosphorus to the environment.