Soil Ca, Al, acidity and penetration resistance with subsoiling, lime and gypsum treatments

Abstract. Crop growth on strongly weathered soils is often limited by soil compaction in addition to aluminium toxicity and/or calcium deficiency. This study examines the effects of subsoiling, lime and gypsum on penetrometer resistance, acidity, aluminium and calcium levels and cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) root growth on soils transitional between Cecil and Appling series (clayey, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Hapludults) in the Piedmont region of Georgia, USA. The main plots were subsoiled to depths of 0.35 or 0.80 m or untreated. Dolomitic limestone (0 or 4.03 t per hectare on subplots) and phosphogypsum (0 or 10 t per hectare on sub-subplots) were incorporated into the surface soil (0.15 m). Deep subsoiling (0.80 m depth) decreased penetrometer resistance at 0.3–0.5 m depth and increased yield in two of three years, but there was no response to shallow subsoiling (0.35 m depth). Lime increased yield when surface soil water pH prior to amendment was less than a Cate-Nelson critical value of 4.6. Gypsum moved downward much more rapidly than lime, increasing soil solution calcium ion activity to a depth of 0.8 m within 5 months of application. There were differences in clay content between replicate plots and calcium movement was faster where the clay content was less. Yield responses to gypsum in 1986 were attributed to increased root growth below 0.2 m resulting from the increased calcium ion activity. Yield response to gypsum in limed sub-subplots was significant only in 1986.