Soil is an important factor in plant cultivation. Apart from being a planting medium, soil also supplies nutrients to plants in the form of nutrients.
Therefore, for successful cultivation of plants, you need to know the condition of the soil. One thing that is very important is the soil acidity level or soil pH.
High rainfall results in the leaching of nutrients from the soil, which then has implications for the formation of acidic soil. Excessive presence of Al (aluminium), Cu (copper) and Fe (iron). Water that continuously stagnates on land due to poor water management or drainage.
Quoted from the Cybex page of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, Thursday (2/3/2023), the activity of liming or applying dolomite lime is an effort to increase the pH of the soil by adding lime to the soil. The main purpose of liming is to increase the soil pH from acidic pH to neutral pH.
The benefits of applying dolomite lime to agricultural land are as follows:
Raises soil pH
Adding Ca and Mg elements
Increases the availability of phosphate (P) and molybdenum (Mo) elements
Reduces Fe, Mn, and Al toxicity
Improve soil texture and structure
Improve the biological properties of soil
However, excessive application of dolomite lime causes several detrimental things, including a lack of iron, manganese, copper and zinc which are needed in plant physiological processes.
This is because Fe, Mg, Zn are tightly bound or combined with the lime element, so that they cannot be absorbed by plant roots anymore. The availability of element P is reduced again due to the formation of insoluble calcium phosphate complexes. Phosphorus absorption by plants is very difficult.
How to calculate dolomite lime requirements
A simple way to determine the need for dolomite lime is to calculate the difference between the target soil pH and the actual soil pH measured before tillage. To raise 1 point of soil pH, 2 tons of dolomite lime per hectare are needed. For example, the actual soil pH of a field shows 4.3. The expected soil pH is 6.0. The amount of dolomite lime needed to raise soil pH from 4.3 to 6.0 is (6.0-4.3) x 2,000 kg = 3,400 kg per hectare.
sumber: https://agri.kompas.com/read/2023/03/02/135539784/manfaat-pemberian-kapur-dolomit-setelah-hujan?page=all