Summary
In a heathland nursery on an acid sandy podsol and in a nursery on moderately acid agricultural land, four PK fertilizers were compared with superphosphate alone, using seedlings and transplants of Sitka sprucePicea sitchensis and Norway sprucePicea abies as test crops. The four fertilizers were: 1) a compound prepared from KCl and superphosphate (KCl/superphosphate), 2) the same compound supplemented by three summer topdressings of potassium nitrate, 3) potassium dihydrogen phosphate, 4) potassium metaphosphate. Except for potassium nitrate all fertilizers were applied in the spring before sowing or transplanting.
Mid-season analyses (confined to Sitka spruce seedlings) showed that the effectiveness of different fertilizers depended on the rainfall pattern during growth. Phosphorus and potassium were leached less and nutrients used more efficiently with potassium metaphosphate than with KCl/superphosphate. Potassium nitrate applied on three occasions during the summer to plots with KCl/superphosphate maintained the best growth and largest K-concentrations in the seedlings. Differences between fertilizers were small for transplants at the heathland nursery and for all crops at the nursery on an agricultural-type soil. Losses of P and K by leaching on the sandy podsol both decreased in the order KCl/superphosphate > or=potassium dihydrogen phosphate > potassium metaphosphate.
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Benzian, B., Bolton, J. & Mattingly, G.E.G. Soluble and slow-release PK-fertilizers for seedlings and transplants ofPicea sitchensis andPicea abies in two English nurseries. Plant Soil 31, 238–256 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373568
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373568