Long-term experiments in Skierniewice

The research carried out Division of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry has always been the key factor of the progress of Polish agriculture and the scientific development of the generations of agricultural chemists. For many years the research and teaching activities realized by our Division focused on typically agricultural issues (productivity of mineral and organic fertilizer in the context of their multidirectional interaction: fertilizers – plants – soil). The results of this research focused also on the environmental effects of fertilization (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions from differently fertilized agricultural soils, nutrients leaching from the soil, sorption properties of soils in relation to phosphorus in the context of the importance of this component in eutrophication process). Of course, the Department conducted parallel studies on modern methods of fertilization diagnostics based on the chemical composition of the soil solution, regeneration of the yield potential of soils lost as a result of unsustainable mineral and organic fertilization, the need for soil fertilization with potassium and sulfur, and the assessment of micronutrient soil abundance. Since 1921, we have been carrying out these tasks, first of all, by conducting research on the oldest in Poland long-term fertilization experiments in Skierniewice. Experimental settings, such as the type and amount of the fertilizers were described in table below.