Root growth can be affected by chemical modifications in the soil profile due to lime and gypsum applications. A field trial was carried out on a dystrophic Clay Rhodic Hapludox at Ponta Grossa, State of Paraná, Brazil, aiming at evaluating lime and gypsum effects on root growth and plant chemical traits of barley, cv. BR 2 (Al susceptible). A randomized complete block design was used, with three replications, in a split-plot layout. The main plots received dolomitic limestone treatments (no lime and 4.5 t.ha-1 of lime-on the surface or incorporated into the soil) and the subplots, the rates of gypsum (0, 3, 6 and 9 t.ha-1), applied in the installation of a no-tillage system, in 1998. Barley was grown during the 1999 winter season, after the soybean crop. Liming (whether surface applied or incorporated into the soil), and gypsum rates did not significantly affected barley root growth, although gypsum provided better root relative distribution in the soil profile, mainly when associated to liming. Under severe water stress conditions there was no limitation to barley root growth in depth (for 6 mmol c.dm-3 exchangeable Ca and 35% Al saturation). Lime incorporation improved the plant nutrition as to N and K, but liming treatments did not affect grain yields-these were limited by the prolonged water deficit during flowering stage. However, gypsum increased N, P, K, Ca and S plant levels, even under water stress conditions, with significant effects on grain yields, due to increases in the exchangeable Ca, Ca/Mg relationships and S-SO4(2-) levels available in the soil.
acidity; subsoil; root system; calcium; sulphur; no-tillage system
