Long-term Assessment of Soil Chemical Properties in Different Soil Texture Orchard Fields in Gyeongnam Province

Abstract

The monitoring of soil fertility changes in orchard is very important for agricultural sustainability. Field monitoring was performed to evaluate the soil chemical properties of 140 orchard (23 sites for sandy loam, 88 sites for loam, 28 sites for silt loam, and 1 site for loamy fine sand) in Gyeongnam province every 4 years from 2002 to 2014. Soil chemical properties such as pH, electrical conductivity, amount of organic matter (OM), available phosphate (<TEX>$P_2O_5$</TEX>), lime requirement (LR), exchangeable potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sodium were analyzed. The amount of OM, exchangeable K, Ca, and Mg were significantly increased as cultivation year increases. The frequency distribution within optimum range of subsoil chemical properties in 2014 was 34.3% for pH, 35.0% for OM, 17.1% for available <TEX>$P_2O_5$</TEX>, 22.9% for exchangeable K, 15.7% for exchangeable Ca, and 22.1% for exchangeable Mg. In addition, the available <TEX>$P_2O_5$</TEX> and exchangeable calcium were excess level with portions of 69.3% and 48.6%, respectively. The soil chemical properties in the topsoil and subsoil showed that soil pH was significantly higher in sandy loam soil than those from the loam and silt loam soils. The OM, exchangeable K, Mg, and LR of loam soil were higher than those from the sandy loam soil. These results indicated that a balanced management of soil chemical properties as affected by soil texture can improve the amount of fertilizer applied for sustainable agriculture in orchard field.