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The Availability of Phosphorus to Alfalfa in the Horizons of Four Eastern Nebraska Soils¹

ABSTRACT

Thurman, Carrington, Crete, and Crofton soils of eastern Nebraska were sampled by horizons to determine their availability of phosphorus to alfalfa. In a greenhouse study, alfalfa was grown on part of each sample which was treated with phosphate fertilizer, and part which was left untreated. The growth and composition of the alfalfa made on the untreated soil provided a measure of the availability of phosphorus in the soil horizon. The growth and composition of the alfalfa on the phosphate-treated soil provided a measure of the growth alfalfa could make on a given horizon if phosphorus were not limiting. The treatments were replicated three times, and three cuttings were obtained. The replicate samples were composited and analyzed for nitrogen, phosphorus, and cation contents.

In general, phosphate treatment increased the yield and influenced the composition of alfalfa. The total nitrogen, phosphorus, and magnesium uptake by the alfalfa was increased with the phosphate application. Phosphate tended to reduce the total calcium uptake of the alfalfa tops. The total cation content of the alfalfa tops was quite constant. In addition, phosphate appears to have played an important role in the fixation of nitrogen by alfalfa in these phosphorus-deficient soils. A variation was found in the phosphorus-supplying capacity of the different soil horizons, as indicated by a range in total phosphorus removed in the tops from 0.01 to 0.17 gms, with a range in yields of tops from 3.2 to 19.4 gms. The increases in phosphorus removed by the tops due to the application of phosphate were from 0.08 to 0.69 gms. The increases in yields due to the phosphate treatment were from 1.8 to 19.3 gms.

¹ Contribution of the Department of Agronomy, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, Lincoln, Nebr. Published with the approval of the Director as Paper No. 588, Journal Series, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station. Presented before Division IV of the Soil Science Society of America at Cincinnati, Ohio, November 19, 1952.

² Formerly Graduate Assistant and Assistant Professor of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, respectively. The assistance of R. L. Fox in sampling the Thurman and Crofton soils and in potting the soils is acknowledged.

Received for publication December 22, 1952.