Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:58:56.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The immediate and long-term value of some magnesium fertilizers for sugar beet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. P. Draycott  and
M. J. Durrant
A. P. Draycott
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
M. J. Durrant
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Nine 5-year field experiments between 1964 and 1971 tested the effect of kainit, kieserite, magnesium and calcium limestone, and farmyard manure on yield and magnesium uptake by sugar beet and on exchangeable soil magnesium. The experiments were in the main sugar beet growing areas on soils that contained little (12–24 ppm) exchangeable magnesium. The fertilizers were applied in the year before the first sugar-beet crop and fresh dressings of some were given to other plots each time sugar beet was grown. Kieserite increased sugar yield equally when applied in the sugarbeet seed bed or three years before the sugar beet. Magnesium limestone was effective only when the soil pH was less than 7·0. FYM greatly increased yield but the increase could not be explained entirely by the magnesium it supplied.

On average, applying 100 kg/ha magnesium (as kieserite) to the seed bed increased the magnesium concentration in dried tops and roots by about 0·135 and 0·020% respectively and the total uptake by the crop in August by 9·0 kg/ha. The same treatment applied in the sugar-beet seed bed or 3 or 4 years previously increased exchangeable magnesium in the surface 25 cm of soil by 29·0, 7·6 and 1·8 ppm respectively. Thus much of the fertilizer given to the first sugar-beet crop was lost from the plough layer for the second sugar-beet crop but the yields indicated that some of it was available from depth.

On alkaline soils, when exchangeable soil magnesium in the plough layer is 0–25, 26–50 or > 51 ppm, an initial application of 100, 50 or 0 kg/ha respectively of water-soluble magnesium is needed, applied either in the previous autumn or to the sugarbeet seed bed. If the exchangeable soil magnesium before the following or subsequent sugar-beet crop is 0–15, 16–25 or > 26 ppm, a further application of 100, 50 or 0 kg/ha respectively of magnesium should be given.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 79 , Issue 3 , December 1972 , pp. 463 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, S. N. (1961). The effect of time of application of phosphate and potash on sugar beet. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 56, 127–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. & Penny, A. (1968). The effects of potassium and magnesium fertilizers on yield and composition of successive crops of ryegrass, clover, sugar beet, potatoes, kale and barley on sandy soil at Woburn. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 70, 303–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chableswobth, R. R. (1967). The effect of applied magnesium on the uptake of magnesium by, and on the yield of, arable crops. Tech. Bull. Min. Agric. Fish. Fd, No. 14, 110–26.Google Scholar
Draycott, A. P. (1969). The effect of farmyard manure on the fertilizer requirement of sugar beet. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 73, 119–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Draycott, A. P. & Duurant, M. J. (1971). Effects of nitrogen fertilizer, plant population and irrigation on sugar beet. III. Water consumption. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 76, 277–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dbaycott, A. P., Dukrant, M. J., Hull, R. & Webb, D. J. (1972). Yields of sugar beet and barley in contrasting crop rotations at Broom's Barn, 1965–70. Rep. Rothamsted exp. Stn for 1971, Part 2, 149–54.Google Scholar
Greenham, D. W. P. (1971). Movement of potassium and magnesium in fruit soils. Tech. Bull. Min. Agric. Fish. Fd, No. 20, 237–50.Google Scholar
Harrod, M. J. & Caldwell, T. H. (1967). The magnesium manuring of sugar beet on light sandy soils of East Anglia. Tech. Bull. Min. Agric. Fish. Fd, No. 14, 127–42.Google Scholar
Holmes, M. R. J. (1962). Field experiments on the magnesium requirement of potatoes in Great Britain. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 58, 281–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reith, J. W. S. (1967). Effects of soil magnesium levels and of magnesium dressings on crop yield and composition. Tech. Bull. Min. Agric. Fish Fd, No. 14, 97–109.Google Scholar
Tinker, P. B. H. (1965). The effects of nitrogen, potassium and sodium fertilizers on sugar beet. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 65, 207–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinker, P. B. H. (1967). The effects of magnesium sulphate on sugar beet and its interactions with other fertilizers. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 68, 205–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar