Yield responses of arable crops to liming – An evaluation of relationships between yields and soil pH from a long-term liming experiment

Summary

The management of optimal soil pH is fundamental to sustainable crop production. Understanding the lime requirement for arable crops has developed gradually over the last several decades. The aim of this study was to examine the yield-pH relationship for a range of arable crops to understand their response to liming, based on the Long-Term Liming experiments established in 1962 at Rothamsted Research, UK. The main treatments of four different rates of lime and, therefore, four distinctly different soil pH levels were maintained for 35 years at two sites (Rothamsted and Woburn). The pH ranged from 4.4 to 8.0. The lime response was tested on the following crops: spring barley, spring oats, spring beans, spring lupins, winter lupins, potatoes, linseed, winter oilseed rape, winter triticale an