Tuesday, 7 February 2006 - 2:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Soils--IV

Mehlich-3 Phosphorus and Potassium Correlation and Fertilizer Calibrations for Rice, Soybean, and Wheat in Arkansas - Preliminary Results.

Nathan Slaton, Russell DeLong, Richard Norman, Charles Wilson, Morteza Mozaffari, and Leo Espinoza. University of Arkansas, 1366 West Altheimer Drive, Fayetteville, AR 72704

Accurate fertilizer recommendations require numerous site-years of data to correlate soil nutrient availability indices to crop yield response and calibrate the fertilizer rates associated with designated soil-test levels. The objective of this project is to conduct phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) correlation and calibration trials with rice, soybean, and winter wheat on silt-loam soils in eastern Arkansas. Soil chemical property and crop yield data were assimilated from 14 site-years for winter wheat response to P, 9 site-years for soybean response to P, 11 site-years for soybean response to K, and 16 site-years for rice response to K. Relative yield data for the unfertilized controls were regressed against the Mehlich-3 nutrient concentrations. The relationship between Mehlich-3 K and relative soybean yield was significant (P = 0.0002), nonlinear, and Mehlich-3 K explained 88% of the variability in relative soybean yields. Predicted relative soybean yields of 90 and 95% were produced by Mehlich-3 K concentrations of 100 and 115 mg K/kg, respectively. Correlations for other relative yields and nutrients were linear and significant (P <0.10), but explained only 23 (rice-K), 35 (wheat-P), and 37% (soybean-P) of the variation in relative yields. For wheat, relative yields <90% were produced at five sites which also had <25 mg P/kg. Soils with >25 mg P/kg never produced relative wheat yields <92%. For soybean, relative yields <90% were produced at only two sites which had <20 mg P/kg. However, three other sites with <20 mg P/kg had relative soybean yields >92%. For rice, relative yields <90% were produced at eight sites with Mehlich-3 K <100 mg K/kg. Five other sites also had <100 mg K/kg and produced relative rice yields >90%. Fertilization trials will be continued to build the correlation and calibration databases for each crop.

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