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The pC value of soils and its effect on the tomato crop
Author(s) -
Butters R. E.
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740110406
Subject(s) - gypsum , ripening , chemistry , soil water , saturation (graph theory) , horticulture , yield (engineering) , crop , negative correlation , conductivity , agronomy , botany , mathematics , food science , soil science , materials science , environmental science , biology , medicine , combinatorics , metallurgy
The percentage of blotchy ripening of tomato fruit decreases as the soil pC value becomes lower, but total yield and size are reduced at pC values below 3.0 (measured on the 1: 2 1/2 extract). Gypsum showed only very slight, if any, effect on plants from applications sufficient to saturate the 1: 2 1/2 extract. The conductivity of the soil solution and of the saturation extract (which closely resembles it) gave good correlation with the fresh weight of the plants, regardless of the gypsum content of the soil. There was, however, no correlation between the 1: 2 1/2 extract values and plant weight, because of the soils with a high gypsum content. It is suggested that there should be a change to the use of an extract more closely resembling the soil solution and that the direct conductivity value should be used in place of the pC figure.