RESPONSE OF BARLEY AND ALFALFA TO LIMING OF SOLONETZIC, PODZOLIC AND GLEYSOLIC SOILS OF THE PEACE RIVER REGION

Abstract

In a greenhouse experiment, lime applied to soils from a northern region of Alberta and British Columbia generally caused decreases in barley yields when no P was added and increases when P was added. Liming usually gave increases in alfalfa yields whether P was added or not. These changes in yields of barley and alfalfa were inversely related to soil organic matter and those of alfalfa were also inversely related to soil pH. Soluble Al in these soils, extracted by dilute HCl (pH 2.4), was inversely related to both soil organic matter and pH, and probably because of this, the yield changes were better correlated with soluble Al than with pH. In field trials placed near six of the 28 sampling sites, lime applications gave yield increases of bromegrass-alfalfa hay similar to those for alfalfa in the greenhouse experiment.