Evaluation of the lime requirement of tropical soils in terms of other soil characteristics

Abstract

The quantity of limestone required to bring the pH of various acid Puerto Rican soils to 6.5 was investigated and found to vary from several hundred to several thousands pounds per acre. To investigate the relation of clay-mineral type, clay content, cation-exchange capacity, organic-matter content, and pH to lime requirement, these properties were determined for several soils. A highly significant regression of lime requirement on pH was obtained which can be expressed by the equation: Y = 18.39 — 3.196 X, where Y is the lime requirement and X is the pH value. Multiple regressions including other factors did not significantly increase the variability which could be explained on terms of the first regression. Further analysis were made by arranging the data according to the predominant clay mineral. For kaolinitic soils highly significant correlations were obtained between lime requirement and either pH or cation exchange capacity. The regressions were: (a) Y = 15.26 — 2.632 pH, and (b) Y = 3.048 + 0.5774 (cation-exchange capacity), where Y is the lime requirement. A regression of lime requirement on both factors did not significantly increase the variability explained by the second equation. No significant regressions were obtained for beidellitic soils.