A loblolly pine phosphorus fertilization trial was evaluated 20 years after establishment on a Tatum silt loam in the Virginia Piedmont. Triple superphosphate (TSP) was applied at 160 kg P/ha and ground rock phosphate (GRP) was applied at both 160 kg P/ha and 670 kg P/ha. Lime (4.48 T/ha) was applied with and without the TSP treatment. Tree growth was not significantly affected by treatment and foliar phosphorus levels were above 0.10% indicating that a deficiency was not the immediate growth limiting factor. Double-acid-extractable soil phosphorus critical levels established for the Coastal Plain do not appear useful for diagnosing tree requirements for this Piedmont soil. A critical level of 1.0 ppm double-acid-extractable phosphorus would be more applicable to this soil. GRP was more effective than TSP after 20 years at increasing phosphorus uptake, probably due to a slower dissolution rate and the inclusion of F-ions which reacted with soil Al to reduce phosphorus fixation. Although an increase in the A horizon pH persisted for 20 years, there was no increase in phosphorus uptake as a direct response to this higher pH. Liming may have some long-term merit when applied in conjunction with a water soluble phosphorus fertilizer such as TSP by reducing the transformations of applied phosphorus to unavailable forms. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/82659 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Torbert, John L. |
| Contributors | Forestry and Forest Products |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | x, 189, [2] leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 9616637 |
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