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46355

Ameliorating a Sandy Soil Using Biochar and Compost Amendments and Their Implications as Slow Release Fertilizers on Plant Growth

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Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Poor fertility and low water retention at the different soil moisture constants are both limiting factors of crop productivity in sandy soils. Recycling organic wastes might provide such soils with nutritive elements and, at the same time, improves their chemical and physical characteristics. Thus, two organic amendments (biochar and compost) were selected in the current study to investigate their effectiveness as amendments of a sandy soil while considering the following two assumptions: (H1) efficiency of a half dose of biochar or less is comparable to the effect of the full dose of compost for improving soil physical and chemical characteristics. Furthermore, the residual effects of biochar (vs compost) on soil properties seemed to be more noticeable in the successive growing season. (H2) Biochar can negatively affect the bio-availability and concentrations of P and soil micro- nutrients within the areal parts of plants due to its alkaline nature on one hand, and its relatively high persistence in soil, on the other one. Accordingly a sandy soil (of low buffering capacity) was amended with either biochar (BS at elevated rates) and/or compost (CT), solely or in combination and then planted with peanut. The residual effect of these amendments was investigated in the successive season on wheat. Results revealed that the effect of applying 12.5 Mg Bs ha-1 was almost similar to that of applying 25 Mg CT ha-1 during the two seasons of study. On the other hand, the application of only 5 Mg Bs ha-1 could improve slightly; but insignificantly some soil characteristics. The combination between “Bs+CT" recorded further significant improvements in the abovementioned characteristics especially at the higher doses of application. Thus, we partially accept the first assumption. To investigate the second one, the availability of N, P, K, Fe, Zn and Mn nutrients was considered in the investigated soil by the end of each growing season in addition to the concentrations of these nutrients within the areal parts of the grown plants. Results obtained herein indicate that biochar underwent considerable decomposition in sandy soils shifting the pH slightly towards alkalinity. . On the other hand, both the biochar and compost could improve significantly the availability of soil macro-and micro- nutrients and hence increased their uptake by the grown plants. These finding does not, therefore, support the second hypothesis. In conclusion, biochar is recommended as a slow release fertilizer for macro- and micro- nutrients when applied at only a half dose of compost and its effect on soil physical and chemical characteristics may extend for more than one year after application.

DOI

10.21608/ejss.2019.12914.1276

Keywords

Biochar, compost, sandy soil, chemical properties, Physical properties, Peanut, Wheat

Authors

First Name

Mahmoud

Last Name

Elshony

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Soils and Water Department, Faculty of Agric., Benha University Soil, Water and Environment Res. Inst, Agric, Res. Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt

Email

omrhamza2006@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Ihab

Last Name

Farid

MiddleName

M.

Affiliation

Benha University, Faculty of Agriculture, Soils and Water Department

Email

ihabsamie2006@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Faten

Last Name

Alkamar

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Soil, Water and Environment Res. Inst, Agric, Res. Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt

Email

fatenalkamar@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohamed

Last Name

Abbas

MiddleName

H.H.

Affiliation

Benha University, Faculty of Agriculture, Soils and Water department

Email

mohamed.abbas@fagr.bu.edu.eg

City

Obour

Orcid

0000-0002-1905-1241

First Name

Hassan

Last Name

Abbas

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Benha University, Faculty of Agriculture, Soils and Water Department

Email

hharsalem@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

59

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

9676

Issue Date

2019-12-01

Receive Date

2019-05-29

Publish Date

2019-12-01

Page Start

305

Page End

322

Print ISSN

0302-6701

Online ISSN

2357-0369

Link

https://ejss.journals.ekb.eg/article_46355.html

Detail API

https://ejss.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=46355

Order

8

Type

Original Article

Type Code

19

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Soil Science

Publication Link

https://ejss.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Ameliorating a Sandy Soil Using Biochar and Compost Amendments and Their Implications as Slow Release Fertilizers on Plant Growth

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023