Phosphorus acquisition from phosphate rock by soil cover crops, maize, and a buckwheat–maize cropping system

Valéria Adriele Lopes,Marcelo Chan Fu Wei,Tainá Martins Cardoso,Eduardo Dal’Ava Mariano,José Carlos Casagrande,Eder De Souza Martins

doi:10.1590/1678-992x-2020-0319

Valéria Adriele Lopes, Marcelo Chan Fu Wei + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-992x-2020-0319

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Abstract

Alternatives to enhance the consensual low phosphorus (P) use efficiency of agriculture may include use of phosphate rock (PR) and plant species with unequal ability to get soil and rock P interplanted in cropping systems to allow plants with higher ability to facilitate access to P of plants with lower ability. This study investigated (i) the maize and three soil cover crops on their capacity to acquire P from PR and (ii) measured P acquisition of maize interplanted with the soil cover crop with the highest capacity to acquire P shown in (i). Experiments were carried out in a greenhouse, with plants grown in single and mixed cropping in pots containing a sandy, low–P soil amended with Monocalcium Phosphate (McP) or the Brazilian PR Itafós. Plant biomass production with PR, in relation to McP, was 83.7 % for buckwheat, 83.6 % for forage radish, 51.8 % for maize, and 0.3 % for pigeon pea. Buckwheat showed capacity of acquiring P from PR; nevertheless, it did not increase growth or P nutrition of maize interplanted in the soil amended with PR, showing no significant P facilitation. The soil amended with McP showed competition between the two plants in the pots. Maize had a greater growth in mixed than in single cropping and this occurred at the expenses of buckwheat. Despite the P mobilization potential of buckwheat, its simple interplanting with maize did not produce positive results.

Highlights

The use of phosphorus (P) in agriculture is rather inefficient in most cases
Alternatives to enhance the consensual low phosphorus (P) use efficiency of agriculture may include use of phosphate rock (PR) and plant species with unequal ability to get soil and rock P interplanted in cropping systems to allow plants with higher ability to facilitate access to P of plants with lower ability
The plant species interacted with the P sources resulting in highly significant differences in plant biomass and P accumulation of shoots and roots

Summary

Introduction

The use of phosphorus (P) in agriculture is rather inefficient in most cases. Only part of the P applied to fertilize the soils is taken up by plants along the years and P accumulation in poorly soluble inorganic and organic compounds contributes definitively to its inefficient use (Withers et al, 2018). Experiments were carried out in a greenhouse, with plants grown in single and mixed cropping in pots containing a sandy, low–P soil amended with Monocalcium Phosphate (McP) or the Brazilian PR Itafós. Buckwheat showed capacity of acquiring P from PR; it did not increase growth or P nutrition of maize interplanted in the soil amended with PR, showing no significant P facilitation.

Results

Conclusion