Three years performance of a tolerant and a susceptible maize cultivar on non-amended and amended acid soil

Abstract

A long-term agronomic experiment was conducted from 1996 to 2000 at Ebolowa, Cameroon. On the acid soil with high Al supply maize grain yield of the soil acidity-tolerant cultivar ATR-SR-Y was 61% higher compared to the sensitive cultivar Tuxpeno sequia. The annual application of 60 kg P ha-1 for three consecutive years did not significantly increase the grain yield of the soil acidity-tolerant cultivar. Except in the first year lime addition resulted in a significant increase of grain yield of the tolerant (82%) and particularly the susceptible cultivar (208%). This corresponded to a significant decrease in exchangeable Al and to a significant increase in pH and exchangeable Ca and Mg contents of the soil. The application of chicken manure or green manure (Cassia spectabilis leaves) significantly increased maize grain yield. These increases in yield were partly attributed to an increase of exchangeable Ca and available P of the soil with chicken manure and to a decrease of exchangeable Al with the application of C. spectabilis leaves.