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The aim of the study was to determine the agricultural usefulness of the ashes obtained following the combustion of wood of fourteen tree species (pear tree, apple tree, aspen, ash, alder, birch, poplar, hornbeam, pine, common walnut, oak, hazel, bird cherry and spruce) in home fireplaces. The following physical properties of the ashes were determined: colour, solubility, porosity, absorbability, compression strength, degree of fineness, moisture content and spreadability. In the ashes obtained from the combustion of wood in a fireplace furnace, the following parameters were determined: pH H2O , pH KCl (1 mole dm -3 KCl), pH CaCl2 (0.01 mole dm -3 CaCl 2 ) and total alkalinity in terms of the suitability of ashes as a liming agent. The contents of C tot. and N tot. were determined with a CHNS/O elemental analyser by Perkin-Elmer and the contents of other elements (macronutrients and heavy metals) were specified using the method of atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma ICP-AES. Wood ashes are a source of macronutrients for plants. Their contents can be presented in the following series of decreasing values: Ca > C > K > Mg > P > S > N. Out of 1 t of wood ash, approx. 160 kg C, 6 kg N, 20 kg P, 98 kg K, 302 kg Ca, 39 kg Mg and 18 kg S can be introduced into the soil. The content of heavy metals in the analysed ashes was low, and exceeded the acceptable standards for their content in waste materials intended for liming soils. The analysed ashes exhibit good physical and chemical properties. They can be suitable for use in agriculture as a liming agent to be applied on medium and heavy soils.

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A field experiment was carried out in 2016–2018 in a white lupin (Lupinus albus L.)-winter wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. ‘Bogatka’) crop rotation. The aim of this study was to determine the amount of nitrogen (N) that was biologically fixed by the white lupin crop in the first year of the rotation and to estimate how much of this N was then taken up from the lupin residues by winter wheat in the second and third years of the rotation. Biologically fixed N was determined by the isotope-dilution method (ID15N) by applying 30 kg N ha−1 of 15N-labeled fertilizer (15NH4)2SO4 (containing 20.1 at.% 15N) to the white lupin and the reference plant spring wheat. The yields of white lupin seeds and crop residues were 3.92 t ha−1 and 4.30 t ha−1, respectively. The total amount of N in the white lupin biomass was 243.2 kg ha−1, which included 209.3 kg ha−1 in the seeds and 33.9 kg ha−1 in the residues. The 15N-labeled residue of white lupin was cut and ploughed into soil. Our results indicate that 111.2 kg N ha−1 was fixed from the atmosphere by the lupin plants, with 93.7 kg ha−1 found in the seeds and 17.5 kg ha−1 in the residues. In the second and third years of the rotation when winter wheat was cultivated, the plots were divided into two groups of subplots (1) without N-fertilization (control) and (2) with an application of 100 kg N ha−1. In the first year of winter wheat cultivation, 20.0% and 21.0% of N from the crop residues was taken up by the control and N-fertilization plots, respectively, while in the second year, uptake was lower at 7.12% and 9.27% in the control and N-fertilized plots, respectively.

This paper presents changes in basic energy parameters of fodder galega (Galega orientalis Lam.) cultivated for five years as a potential energy crop under the effect of mineral fertilization. Additionally, the chemical composition of ash obtained after burning the fodder galega biomass was examined for its possible use as a liming agent. The field experiment was conducted between 2005 and 2009 in the experimental plots of the Soil Science and Plant Nutrition Department at the Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities, Poland (52 o 17´N and 22 o 28´E). Five levels of fertilization were included in the study: without fertilization, NP, NK, PK, NPKCa (0control, N-20, P-50, K-150, Ca-150 kg . ha -1 ). Significantly highest values of heat of combustion (18.95 MJ . kg -1 ) and calorific value were found for galega fertilized with nitrogen (20 kg . ha -1 ) and potassium (150 kg . ha -1 ). The highest dry matter yields and the highest yield energy value, as well as the most amount of ash obtained from biomass combusting were found for galega harvested from objects fertilized with NPKCa (20; 50; 150; 150 kg . ha -1