In the 35th year of the long-term NPK fertilisation field experiment established on carbonated sandy soil in the Danube-Tisza mid-region in 1970, the effect of the treatmentson the yield, mineral composition, element uptake of pea, as well as the characteristicsof the upper soil and the 2 m soil profile were examined in 2005. The pH(H2O) valueof the upper soil of the production site is approximately 7, with 1% humus content and5–10% clay content. Soil water can be found 5–7 m deep, the area is drought-sensitiveand weakly supplied with soluble nutrients (N, P, K). Conclusions from the experimentare as follows:

1. As a result of the soil-enriching PK fertilisation, ammonium lactate – acetic acid (AL)soluble PK stock was accumulated in the ploughed layer, thereby reaching, sometimeseven exceeding the ”satisfactory” 150–200 mg kg-1 range. As a result of the 120 kgP2O5 dose per ha per year, the AL-P2O5 content of the 20–40 cm soil layer alsoincreased fivefold. The vertical movement of K increased the AL-K2O content ofthe 40–60 layer 6.5 times.

2. Only 137 mm precipitation was measured during the active growing season of pea.The weather became dry and hot during flowering. The moderate NP fertilisationincreased grain yield from 0.4 t ha-1 to 0.7 t ha-1. The above-ground air-dry biomassweight at harvest was 2.26 t ha-1, 28% of which was grain yield.

3. Mineral element content was enriched in the small yield. The specific element content of the 1 t grain yield and its associated secondary yield was 112 kg N, 71 kg Ca (99 kgCaO) , 52 kg K (62 kg K2O), 13 kg P (29 kg P2O5), 11 kg Mg (19 kg MgO), 6–7 kg S,1–2 kg Fe and Al, 600–700 g Mn and Sr, 111 g Zn, 100 g B and Na, and 16 g Cu. Thespecific P and K values exceed the values accepted in the Hungarian technicaladvisory system 1.7 times, whereas this excess is 2.2 in the case of N and 3.1 in thecase of Ca and Mg. The level of excess in the case of microelement contents canusually be one order of magnitude.

4. These specific values can be misleading when determining the element need of theplanned yield and they could drive one to overfertilisation. In reality, the smallobtained yield was unable to utilise fertilisers in the given year. Therefore, fertilisationneed could decrease in the following year, since fertiliser after-effects should alsobe taken into consideration.

Keywords: pea, fertilisation, calcareous sand