Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

The application of sediments for the improvement of sandy loam soil properties

Author(s):

Eugenija Baksiene, Almantas Razukas, Danuta Romanovskaja

Recieved Date: 2011-01-07, Accepted Date: 2011-04-10

Abstract:

Lake sediments are a mixture of organic and inorganic material washed into lakes from the catchment and generated within the lake. All types of lake sediments are used to fertilize infertile soils. The efficiency of lake sediments with various chemical composition and their mixture with manure in sandy loam Cambisol was studied in Voke Branch of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry. Experiments were carried out on two backgrounds of mineral fertilizers in the crop rotation with the application of calcareous (25 t ha^-1), organic (10, 40 t ha^-1) and siliceous (25, 100 t ha^-1) lake sediments and their mixtures with manure and limestone. Organic fertilizers and limestone were applied only to the first crop (maize) in the rotation. Experimental evidence suggests that calcareous sediments and limestone declined soil acidity, whereas organic and siliceous sediments had no effect on soil acidity. Only the higher rate of organic (40 t ha^-1) and siliceous (100 t ha^-1) sediments increased the content of total nitrogen in soil by 0.002-0.021 and humus by 0.53% units. Fertilization with mineral fertilizers compensated for the amount of mobile phosphorus and potassium in the soil. The application of lake sediments had a positive impact on physical properties of sandy loam Cambisol. Organic and siliceous sediments increased the soil moisture content and porosity and declined soil bulk density to a higher degree than calcareous sediment. Calcareous sediment improved the aforementioned soil physical characteristics to a greater extent compared with limestone. All rates of organic sediment gave a crop yield increase of 4-24%, 10 t ha^-1 of sediment with 25 t ha^-1 of manure gave a yield increase of 24-33%, and 50 and 100 t ha^-1 rates of siliceous sediment a yield increase of 42-48%.

Keywords:

Lake sediments, soil, chemical properties, physical properties, yield

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2011
Volume: 9
Issue: 2
Category: Environment
Pages: 601-606

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