Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 41:2568–2576, 2010

Effect of Zinc and Dolomite Treatments on the Chemical Composition of Acid Sandy
Soil and Bean Crop

TIBOR TÓTH

Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

The impact of the application of 4,500 kg ha-1 dolomite with or without 40 kg ha-1
ZnSO4 7H2O on the elemental composition of bean and soil as well as on agronomic
properties of the crop were examined in a pot experiment. The application of
dolomite increased soil ammonium lactate–extractable magnesium content threefold
and that of calcium by 80%. Application of zinc increased ammonium lactate–extractable
zinc content by 100%. The increase of 0.8 pH unit from 5.4 (Ř-Ř) to
pH 6.2 (Ř-dolomite) was accompanied by a significantly lower zinc, manganese,
and potassium content of the plant material. Magnesium and potassium antagonistic
effects manifest in plant composition and soil–plant relationships but not in soil.
Magnesium and phosphorus show contradictory relationships: negative in soil and
plant but positive in soil–plant relationship. The dry mass of bean shows the order
of ZnSO4-dolomite > ZnSO4-Ř > Ř-dolomite > Ř-Ř.

Keywords Acidity, ANOVA, antagonism, brown forest soil, correlation matrix, pot
experiment