Response of barley to liming of acid soils collected from different land use systems of Western Oromia, Ethiopia

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the acid soil sensitive but genetically diverse cereal crop in Ethiopia. A green house pot experiment was conducted to assess the response of barley variety (HB-1307) to application rates and particle sizes of lime. The study employed a randomized complete block design of three-way factorial arrangement of three land use types, six rates of lime (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 tons ha-1) and two particle sizes(50 and 100 mesh) of lime in three replications. Plant height, fresh biomass (FB), dry biomass (DB), grain yield (GY), harvest index and plant phosphorus uptake were measured and subjected to analysis of variance using SAS software to evaluate the treatment effects. Maximum mean barley yield components for both 50 and 100 mesh lime particle sizes (LPS) were obtained at 6 t ha-1 on forest land followed by 8 and 10 t ha-1, respectively, on grazing and cultivated lands. The highest GY obtained from different lime rates for both 50 and 100 mesh LPS were not significantly (P> 0.05) different from each other but significantly (P< 0.05) different from the yields of other treatments. The mean square estimate responded insignificant (P> 0.05) interaction effects between lime rates and LPS; highly significant (P< 0.001) between lime rates and land uses; land uses and LPS on barley height, FB, DB, GY and plant phosphorus uptake. The study showed, plant height, FB, DB and GY increased due to liming of the soils under different land uses. However, response pattern of these traits to varying lime application rates varied from one land use to other.