Volume 27, Number 5, 2003

Few studies relate the K reserve in soils developed in a humid tropic climate with the minerals found in the clay fraction. Nineteen soils were collected for this purpose in the Triângulo Mineiro region, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, developed from different parent materials and different weathering degrees. Due to the greater occurrence, a larger number of samples of the Bauru Group was collected, comprising all the geological formations found in the region. The total K content in soil and the sand, […]

Soil compaction is one of the main consequences of inadequate soil management and can lead to a loss of the agricultural sustainability. The compressive behavior of a clayey Red Latosol (Oxisol) under four water tensions and under native vegetation, no-till, and conventional till with a disk plow for two decades was studied. Undisturbed soil samples were used to characterize the soil porosity and for uniaxial compression tests. Preconsolidation pressures and compression indexes were obtained from the soil compression curves, and […]

Field assessments of the water redistribution process are time consuming and costly because hydraulic soil properties vary extensively in space and time. The present work proposes two analytical models to estimate the dynamics of this process, based on the use of the hydraulic unit potential gradient of Richard’s equation. The first model estimates the soil water content and the second flow density, both as functions of time for internal drainage at a given depth. From statistical and physical points of […]

Soil spatial variability in relation to soil formation and agricultural management has been an appealing area of research recently. When the distance between samples causes increased variation of a property, this variation can in part be explained by spatial dependency. The analysis of spatial variability is an important support for the planning of experiments and to evaluate effects of treatments, aiming to reduce experimental variations attributed to random error. The infiltration rate, normally of high spatial variability, is agronomically important […]

The objective of this field experiment was to evaluate the effect of liming and phosphorus application on the structural stability of a clayey acid soil with high organic matter content, a typical feature of the southern Brazilian plateau. The study was carried out on a Brown Latosol (Haplohumox), in Lages, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in a split plot arrangement of a completely randomized block design. Treatments consisted of lime application at rates of 0, 4.5, and 9.0 Mg ha-1 at the […]

Soil organic matter and its different pools have key importance in nutrient availability, soil aggregation, and in the greenhouse gas fluxes between the earth surface and the atmosphere. The objectives of this study were: a) to evaluate the effect of maize production systems under organic and mineral fertilization on total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) stocks and on organic carbon pools (C) in an Acrisol; and b) to estimate the contribution of these systems in the atmospheric CO2 […]

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) crops are of economical and social importance in Brazil; their requirement for nitrogen can be supplied by the symbiosis with bacteria belonging to the order Rhizobiales. However, to guarantee the maximization of the biological nitrogen fixation, seeds must be inoculated with efficient and competitive strains of rhizobia recommended by research. In 2001/2002, 14 million doses of inoculant were sold in Brazil, 99 % of these for soybean and common bean crops. […]

The effects of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF), substratum fumigation, and addition of soluble phosphate on papaya plant cultivar “Sunrise Solo” parameters (height, leaf number, and stem diameter) were studied. Separate treatments with AMF inoculation (Glomus macrocarpum) and increasing phosphorus levels (60, 120, 240, and 480 mg kg-1 of P in soil) influenced these parameters significantly, while the factor substratum fumigation had no significant effect. The inoculation effect was most expressive when 60 mg kg-1 of P in soil was added. Such was […]

To select a method for the evaluation of a root system the research goals, crop of interest, and its growth conditions must be taken into consideration. The study of roots is highly important in the understanding of various phenomena of the shoot growth and development, but requires an extremely careful proceeding since evaluation methods are laborious and the roots are affected by the physiochemical variability of the soil. The objective of this research was to compare five evaluation methods for […]

A greenhouse experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of the Ca/Mg ratio in the cation exchange capacity on common bean growth. Samples of a typic ferric aluminum Red Latosol (LVat) and a psamitic dystrophic Red Latosol (LVdp), both Haplortox (U.S. Soil Taxonomy) in pots containing 3.5 dm3 of soil were treated with Ca:Mg ratios of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized block design with six replications. Three replications were harvested […]