Effects of Organic Acids on Availability of Phosphate and Growth of Corn in Phosphate and Salts Accumulated Soil

Accumulated Phosphate can be released by ligand exchange reaction of organic acids. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of the organic acids on the availability of phosphate and the growth of crop in phosphate and salts accumulated soil. Soil samples were collected from farmer's plastic film house. Available phosphate and electrical conductivity of soil were $3,005mg\;kg^{-1}$ and $16.63mg\;kg^{-1}$ which were 6 and 8 times higher than the optimum range of soil for crop growth, respectively. Corns were cultivated in pots for 2 months. Treatments were no treatment (control), phosphate fertilizer (P), citric acid (CA) 1, 5, 10 mM, and oxalic acid (OA) 1, 5, 10 mM. Water soluble phosphorus, available phosphate, corn growth and uptake were determined after cultivation. Results showed that organic acids increased water soluble phosphorus and available phosphate. For the level of 10 mM, the order of effectiveness of organic acids for water soluble P was citric acid (44%) > oxalic acid (32%). Height and dry weight of corns were increased significantly by the treatment of citric acid 1 and 5 mM. Also, corn absorbed more phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium in the treatment of citric acid 1 mM than these of other treatments. Even though phosphate availability of soil was enhanced by addition of citric acid 10 mM, the growth of corns decreased because high concentration of citric acid caused salt damage by increasement of electrical conductivity. Thus, the citric acid of 1 mM has the potential to improve the availability of phosphate and the healthy growth of corns.