Presently, approximately 60 % of the grain crop area in Paraguay is under no-till (NT). With the expansion of NT in the country, some doubts were raised with respect to the obsoleteness of fertilizer recommendations, especially regarding phosphorus (P). The last P fertilizer recommendation had been established for conventional soil tillage system 15 years earlier. The main objective of this work was to update phosphate fertilizer recommendations for wheat, corn and soybean under NT. Seven different locations in eastern Paraguay were evaluated in a experimental calibration net. The experiments were carried out from 2003 to 2005 in a range of soils with different preceding soil management systems, textures and initial soil fertility levels, in representative regions of the grain production area under NT. The experimental design was randomized blocks with split plots and three repetitions. In the first season the main plots received five P rates (0, 50, 100, 200, and 400 kg ha-1 of P2O5) to establish different soil fertility levels. In the second season, four P rates (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg ha-1 of P2O5) were applied on the split plots to obtain the crop response curve. The phosphorus source was triple super phosphate, broadcast on soil surface. The building up of P in NT was more influenced by the initial P level than by soil texture. In soils with low initial P level it was necessary to apply 36.5 kg ha-1 P2O5 to increase available soil P by 1 mg dm-3, while in soils with medium to high initial P, 18.6 kg ha-1 was needed. The sufficient P level obtained in this study was slightly higher than predicted by the previous recommendation. Thus, the sufficiency P level (Mehlich-1) for soils ranging from 410 to 600 g kg-1 clay is 12 mg dm-3 and for soils ranging from 210 to 400 g kg-1 clay is 15 mg dm-3. This paper proposes a preliminary P fertilization recommendation adapted to no-till in Paraguay.
soil fertility; soil conservation; sufficient P level; phosphorus response curve; soybean; maize; wheat
