Availability of residual and/or applied inorganic phosphorus for sugarcane uptake and growth in a post-mined reconstituted soil

Van Jaarsveld, Corlien; Zharare, Godfrey Elijah; Smit, Michiel Adriaan; Du Preez, Christiaan Cornelius

Availability of residual and/or applied inorganic phosphorus for sugarcane uptake and growth in a post-mined reconstituted soil

dc.contributor.author	Van Jaarsveld, Corlien
dc.contributor.author	Zharare, Godfrey Elijah
dc.contributor.author	Smit, Michiel Adriaan
dc.contributor.author	Du Preez, Christiaan Cornelius
dc.coverage	China
dc.coverage.conference	issn
dc.date.accessioned	2026-02-10T10:25:10Z
dc.date.available	2026-02-10T10:25:10Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.departmentName	Agriculture
dc.description.abstract	Mineral sands mining is worldwide an environmental issue and also at the Hillendale mine in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The post-mined soil is to be rehabilitated to sugarcane cropping. One of the concerns with the post-mined soil which is reconstituted with a 70:30 mixture of sand: slimes (silt-plus-clay fraction), is its low phosphorus (P) status, which could be limiting for optimum sugarcane production. A field experiment was conducted on a reconstituted soil at Hillendale to establish the availability of either residual or applied inorganic P to the plant and first ratoon sugarcane crop. Four treatments were evaluated including those where P fertilizer was omitted, applied at half the recommended rate or introduced equal to the recommended rate according to chemical analysis of the soil. In the fourth treatment, no fertilizer was applied at all, whereas nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) were added at recommended rates in the first three treatments. Phosphorus application had a significant effect on sugarcane fractional light interception and aboveground biomass yield of the plant and first ratoon crops, and stalk length and diameter of the first ratoon crop. Pol, brix, purity and fibre content and tiller number were not affected by P application. The application of P increased the foliar N, P, K, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S) contents of both crops. However, foliar N, P and K were deficient in the first ratoon crop even in the case where fertilizer was applied at the recommended rates, which could have been because of waterlogging. The possible effect of waterlogging on P uptake needs to be addressed in future studies in this reconstituted soil.
dc.faculty	Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering
dc.identifier.citation	Van Jaarsveld, C.M., Zharare, G.E., Smit, M.A. and Du Preez, C.C., 2022. Availability of residual and/or applied inorganic phosphorus for sugarcane uptake and growth in a post-mined reconstituted soil. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 10(11), pp.112-127.
dc.identifier.issn	2327-4344 (online)
dc.identifier.issn	2327-4344 (print)
dc.identifier.other	https://doi.org/10.4236/gep.2022.1011007
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10530/58649
dc.inproceedings	issn
dc.issuenumber	10 / 11
dc.keynote	issn
dc.language.iso	en
dc.pages	112 - 127
dc.peerreviewed	Yes
dc.publisher	Scientific Research Publishing
dc.subject	Nutrient uptake
dc.subject	Soil rehabilitation
dc.subject	Surface mining
dc.subject	Water table
dc.subject	Mineral
dc.subject	Sand mining
dc.title	Availability of residual and/or applied inorganic phosphorus for sugarcane uptake and growth in a post-mined reconstituted soil
dc.title.journal	Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection
dc.type	Journal Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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