The influence of lime and phosphorus on crop production in northern Idaho

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Abstract
Soils in northern Idaho are rapidly becoming acidified as a consequence of heavy applications ammonium-based N fertilizers on cereal crops. The pH decline occurs primarily in the upper 30 cm of the soil profile. Liming with 4400 kg/ha resulted in 9 to 16% increase in cereal yields. A twenty percent increase in spring pea (Pisum sativum) yield was attributable to lime applications. Spring peas appeared to have a greater response to lime than cereals. This greater response may be due in part to increased numbers of Rhizobium leguminosarum found in the surface 15 cm of limed plots. Lime .times. P interactions were observed on spring pea and winter wheat yields (Triticum aestivum) in 1983 and 1984. The spring peas had a greater response to lime than wheat. Winter wheat, more tolerant to acid soil conditions, exhibited a greater response to P.