LIMING OF ACID SOILS IN OSIJEK-BARANJA COUNTY

The negative trend of soil degradation process increases withintensive agricultural production. Therefore, there is a need for soil conditioninglike liming, humification, fertilization, etc. to improve soil quality. One of themajor problems that occur on agricultural soils of Croatia is acidification.A downward trend of soil pH is mainly present in soils of poor structure withintensive agricultural production. In agricultural practice liming often needs to relyonly on the pH value, without determining the hydrolytic acidity, CEC or soiltexture. Due to the above mentioned facts, calculation of liming for Osijek-BaranjaCounty was conducted with the help of ALRxp calculator, which takes CEC, soilpH in KCl, hydrolytic acidity, bulk density of soil, soil textural class and depth ofthe plow layer to 30 cm into account. Low soil pH values have a great influence onsoil suitability for crops as well as on the deficit of calcium and magnesium. All ofthese lead to the degradation of soil structure, and can even lead to disturbances ofplant nutrition in some production areas. On such soils, liming would beimperatively required, but with caution because an excessive intake of limematerials, especially without the necessary analysis, causes a decline in organicmatter and reduces accessibility for plant uptake of microelements.