Liming of acid soils in Osijek-Baranja county

Abstract

The negative trend of soil degradation process increases with intensive agricultural production. Therefore, there is a need for soil conditioning like liming, humification, fertilization, etc. to improve soil quality. One of the major problems that occur on agricultural soils of Croatia is acidification. A downward trend of soil pH is mainly present in soils of poor structure with intensive agricultural production. In agricultural practice liming often needs to rely only on the pH value, without determining the hydrolytic acidity, CEC or soil texture. Due to the above mentioned facts, calculation of liming for Osijek-Baranja County was conducted with the help of ALRxp calculator, which takes CEC, soil pH in KCl, hydrolytic acidity, bulk density of soil, soil textural class and depth of the plow layer to 30 cm into account. Low soil pH values have a great influence on soil suitability for crops as well as on the deficit of calcium and magnesium. All of these lead to the degradation of soil structure, and can even lead to disturbances of plant nutrition in some production areas. On such soils, liming would be imperatively required, but with caution because an excessive intake of lime materials, especially without the necessary analysis, causes a decline in organic matter and reduces accessibility for plant uptake of microelements.

Negativan trend procesa degradacije zemljišta povećava se sa intenzivnom poljoprivrednom proizvodnjom. Zato postoji potreba za poboljšanjem zemljišnih osobina đubrenjem, kalcizacijom, humifikacijom, itd. Jedan od najvećih problema koji se javljaju na poljoprivrednim zemljištima Hrvatske je kiselost. Trend snižavanja pH vrednosti je uglavnom prisutan na loše strukturnim zemljištima sa intenzivnom poljoprivrednom proizvodnjom. U poljoprivrednoj praksi potrebe za kalcizacijom često se oslanjaju samo na pH vrednost, bez utvrđivanja hidrolitičke kiselosti, CEC ili teksturu zemljišta. Shodno navedenim činjenicama, određivanje količine sredstava za kalcizaciju u Osječko-baranjskoj županiji je sprovedeno uz pomoć ALRxp kalkulatora, koji uzima u obzir količinu CEC-a, pH u KCl zemljišta, hidrolitičku kiselost, zapreminsku masu zemljišta, volumnu gustoću, pripadnost teksturnoj klasi i dubinu oraničnog sloja do 30 cm. Niske pH vrednosti zemljišta imaju veliki uticaj na izbor i pogodnost useva koji ćemo gajiti, kao što znamo zbog nedostatka kalcijuma i magnezijuma. Sve ovo dovodi do degradacije strukture zemljišta, a u nekim proizvodnim područjima može čak dovesti do poremećaja u ishrani bilja. Kalcizacija je neophodna upravo na takvim zemljištima, ali uz oprez, jer prekomerni unos kreča, posebno bez neophodne analize, izaziva pad organske materije i smanjuje pristupačnost mikroelemenata neophodnih za biljke.