Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
In a 14-year experiment conducted at Athalassa in the central plain of Cyprus, phosphorus was applied (0, 30 or 60 kg P/ha) annually over the first 5-year period to rainfed barley continually grown and cut for hay at the milk stage of the grain. The bicarbonate-extractable P content in the surface soil was 4 mg/kg at the start and increased to 16 and 25 mg/kg after the five annual applications of 30 and 60 kg P/ha, respectively. The residual effect of P was monitored in the following seven crop seasons, by the end of which soil P had dropped to below the recognised 6 mg/kg threshold value for response to P. The application of P was resumed in the last two experimental seasons (1992/93 and 1993/94). In two cropping seasons, rainfall was < 140 mm and no harvestable yield was obtained. In another two seasons, in which there was adequate rainfall in December and January, there was no response to P, but in the other seasons 30 kg P/ha was sufficient for maximum yield. Concentration of P in the dry matter (DM) harvested increased in proportion to the P applied.
A P balance sheet made after the first five P applications and taking into account the amount of P removed in the DM and the increase in soil bicarbonate-extractable P indicated that 29 and 26 % of the P applied with the 30 and 60 kg P/ha rates, respectively, was accounted for.
The data indicate that the established threshold value of 6 mg P/kg is valid. The soil tested 180 mg/kg exchangeable K. but application of 240 or 480 kg K/ha did not increase yield.