Liming of acid soil and the interaction with soil pH and corn productivity
Riri Rizki Chairiyah, Khadijah EL Ramija, and Siti Fatimah Batubara

Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology North Sumatra

Abstract

Liming is the dominant technology to treat acidic soils which indicated by low soil pH. Improvement of soil pH can be done by giving dolomite to overcome aluminum toxicity and releasing phosphate and potassium nutrients to become available for plants. This study aims to test the effectiveness of dolomite in improving soil pH, corn productivity and optimum dose of dolomite. Field testing was done in Pasar VI Kwala Mencirim Village, Sei Bingai District, Langkat Regency, North Sumatra from April to August 2020 using a non-factorial randomized block design with 7 treatments and 4 replications: Dolomite 0 X (D0) 0 ton ha-1, Dolomite 0.5 X (D1) 1 ton ha-1, Dolomite 1.0 X (D2) 2 ton ha-1, Dolomite 1.5 X (D3) 3 ton ha-1, Dolomite 2.0 X (D4) 4 ton ha-1, Dolomite 2.5 X (D5) 5 ton ha-1, and Standard Dolomite (DS) 2 ton ha-1. Dolomite treatment was given one week before planting by sowing evenly on the experimental plot. The shown that dolomite application to treatments D1, D2, D3 and D4 could increase soil pH, resulting in higher growth and corn production, compared to D0 and DS. The optimum dose of dolomite is 2 ton ha-1 on acid soils.

Keywords: acid soil, corn productivity, liming, soil pH

Topic: Crop Production and Environment