Soil acidity is one of the chief factors of constraint on agricultural production. Lime is the most used corrective, but, apart from the incorporation layer, of slow mobility and slow correction in the soil profile. Other products have been tested for acidity correction such as silicates or the reduction of acidity effects in deeper soil layers with gypsum. This study compared the effect of lime, gypsum and silicates to supply calcium, magnesium, silicate and to correct soil pH in deeper soil layers. Soil samples of an Ustoxic Quartzipsamment were used, collected under native forest, with low levels of exchangeable Ca and Mg and high acidity. Lysimeters were prepared, divided into 12 rings of 5cm and filled with the collected soil. In the top ring (0-5 cm) the equivalent to 500 or 1.000 kg ha-1 calcium silicate (Wollastonite), Ca and Mg silicate, thermophosphate, commercial (calcitic) lime, and agricultural gypsum were incorporated, in a randomized block design with 4 replications. The soil columns were incubated (moisture near field capacity) for 40 days, irrigated with 2.000 mm distilled water (five times/week) during the incubation period. Available silicon, exchangeable Ca and Mg and pH (CaCl2) were determined. Gypsum increased Ca levels throughout the soil profile, but did not correct the acidity. Silicates did correct soil acidity and were more effective than lime for soil pH correction and to increase exchangeable Ca levels. Use of calcium and magnesium silicate or of thermophosphate increased the soil magnesium concentration to a depth of 25 cm. The measured Silicon was transported to the deepest soil layer in the lysimeters (55 cm), independently of the tested Si source.
soil acidity; sub-surface; silicon; agricultural gypsum; silicates; lime
