Effect of different materials on mobile aluminum (Al3+) neutralization with maize growing

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the western Serbia on a highland soil with extremely high content of mobile aluminum (36 mg/ 100 g of soil) and low pH (3.1).

Aiming at Al³⁺ neutralization, the application of bentonite, CaO, MgO, zeolite and crude phosphates was made in different treatments, each designed as a block replicated 3 times plus control. As a test plant, an early vegetation maize hybrid NSSC 201 was used.

The key goal of this study was to find out the extent to which these materials effected changes in Al³⁺, pH and maize yield. The treatment with bentonite (45 t/ha) showed the best effect, since Al³⁺ was reduced to 2.52 mg/100 g of soil and pH increased to 4.16., whereas the treatment with crude phosphates indicated the poorest effect, with Al³⁺ decreased to 25-30 mg/100 g of soil and pH increased to 3.4. 

In general, all the treatments exceptt he control greatly favoured maize yield, with the highest one reported to be 11.93 t/ha on the treatment with 3.0 t/ha CaO, and the lowest one of 8.63 t/ha established on the treatment with crude phosphates.