You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out at the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) and aims at evaluating the effectiveness of two buffering methods in estimating soil buffering capacity and lime requirements in the Orlu series soils. The research design involves both field and laboratory analyses. Field sampling was carried out to obtain representation samples in areas classified as Orlu soil series in NIFOR at two soil depths (0-15 cm and 15-30 cm). The samples were analyzed for some soil physical and chemical properties, as well as for their buffering capacity and lime requirements using two buffering methods. The two buffering methods involved equilibrating 10g soil with 20ml shoemaker buffer solution for 10 minutes and the pH of the soil-shoemaker suspension was determined using a pH meter, the lime requirement was extrapolated from the shoemaker scale. Titration method involved treating duplicates of 5g soils with increasing amount (0, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 ml) of 0.022 M Ca(OH)2 and the pH recorded after shaking for 1 hr and a buffer curve was constructed to access the impact of varying concentration of 0.022 M Ca(OH)2 on the pH of the soil solution. Results indicate that lime requirement estimates varied between the equilibration and titration methods across both soil depths. At 0-15 cm soil depth, mean lime requirement estimates were 5.37 and 3.99 using the Shoe-maker equilibration and Ca(OH)2 titration methods, respectively, while at 15-30 cm soil depth, mean estimates were 5.20 and 2.58, respectively. Considering the Ca(OH)2 titration method the soil buffering capacity were 3.03 and 3.30 ton CaCO3/ha and the lime requirement equation to adjust the soil pH to desirable level for crop product ion was pH = 0.332 (ton CaCO3/ha) + 5.162 and pH = 0.301 (ton CaCO3/ha) + 5.724 for 0-15 and 15-30 cm respectively. It could be concluded that the Ca(OH)2 titration method did not involve hazardous chemicals, it is easier to handle and gave estimates that were not significantly different from the Shoe-maker equilibration method thus it recommended that farmer should adopt the Ca(OH)2 titration.
