Fertilizers and lime, when applieds on surface to soil or along crop rows in the no tillage system, increase its residual effect. This results in an increase in the horizontal variability of the soil chemical characteristics, and in difficulties for collecting representative soil fertility samples. This research was carried out in two studies: the first one was to relate the subsample size with variability of the available phosphorus and potassium. Soil samples were collected with a shovel in an experiment and in a crop fild area in the no tillage system broadcast fertilized, at different sizes and layers up to 20cm depth. The second study was conducted to test the efficiency of different sizes and shapes of subsamples, given by soil sample equipments, througth the variability of soil fertility indexes. Two crop field areass under no tillage system were sampled at the 0-10cm depth with a screw auger and with a shovel with 5/10cm (thickness/wideness) in the broadcast fertilizer field, and with 5cm thick and inter-row width in the row fertilized field. When the soil was sampled with the screw auger, the soil organic matter and available potassium content was lower in the row fertilized field, and available phosphorus content was lower in both, broadcast and row fertilized fields. In this situation, the variability was higher and, as a consequence, a higher number of subsamples were required to represent the fertility status of the soil. Soil samples taken with the shovel at the 5/10cm size were efficient to represent the soil fertility when the soil was broadcast fertilized in the no tillage system.
fertilizer placement; horizontal variability; number of subsamples
