Maize cultivars tolerance to soil acidity and efficiency to liming response

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted on an alic dystrophic latosol which was not cultivated before, aiming to characterize, the tolerance of maize (Zea mays L.)/ cultivars to soil acidity, evaluated through the percentage of saturation of exchangeable Al, and the efficiency to lime response. A randomized block experiment design with split-plots was used. Lime was added to the main plots at rates of 0.0, 3,5 and 13,5 t/ha and the 36 maize cultivars were sown in the sub-plots. Yield differences among cultivars, when compared from the absence of liming, showed a great variability to soil acidity tolerance. A great variability among cultivars to liming response was also observed, this being indicated by the regression coefficient of the linear equation for the relative yield as function of the percentage of, Al saturation, provided by the rates of lime applied. All cultivars were grouped into three classes, based on the yield average obtained from the absence of liming and the average of the regression coefficient of the equations. The classes are the following: 1. 1ow tolerance to soil acidity, with high efficiency to liming response; 2. high tolerance to soil acidity, with low efficiency to liming response; 3. high tolerance to soil acidity and high efficiency to liming response.