Combinations of cover crop mixtures and bio-waste composts enhance biomass production and nutrients accumulation: a greenhouse study

Abstract

Improved farming practices are needed to produce more food in a sustainable way. This study assessed 12 combinations of cover crop mixtures and amendment treatments and their effects on shoot and root dry (matter (DM) weights, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) uptakes in plants, Mehlich-3 extractable P (PM3) and K (KM3). Shoot and root DM weights were increased by 30–63% with combinations of clover-based cover crop mixtures and 65 Mg ha−1 of municipal solid food waste (MSFW) compared with synthetic fertilizer. The combination of clover-based cover crop mixtures with MSFW increased N uptake by 38 and 30%, P uptake by 57 and 40% and K uptake by 77 and 77% compared with fertilized and unfertilized treatments, respectively. The combination of vetch-based cover crop mixtures with MSFW had no effect on N uptake, but increased P uptake on average by 43%, and K uptake on average by 11% compared with fertilized and unfertilized treatments. The highest soil PM3 and KM3 values were obtained with additions of MSFW, while the lowest were obtained with synthetic fertilizer indicating that the amount of P and K added with MSFW were greater than cover crop needs. Combining cover crop mixtures and MSFW at levels recommended for N fertilization allows meeting cover crops’ nutrient needs and increases biomass inputs to agricultural soils, but long-term monitoring of soil P is required to limit potential P build-up.

Hidden miners – the roles of cover crops and soil microorganisms in phosphorus cycling through agroecosystems

“…It is difficult, therefore, to draw general conclusions about cover crop mixtures due to the inherent differences in systems depending on the specific components. Mixtures frequently outperform single species in terms of biomass production and P uptake (Li et al 2007(Li et al , 2014Messiga et al 2016), in addition to the positive influence plant biodiversity exerts on soil biology. Other plants growing in close association with P-mobilizing plants confer additional benefits through intercropping or undersowing, and may also increase access to sparingly-soluble P (Li et al 2007).…”

Soil phosphorus drawdown by perennial bioenergy cropping systems in the Midwestern US

“…An important role of legacy soil P in supporting crop P requirements has been reported in a Spodosol in Florida (Obour et al, 2011; Silveira et al, 2013), and in Cambisols and Luvisols in Germany (Ohm et al, 2017). Similar to P removal by crop harvest, net drawdown of soil P reserves in grazing lands occurs by harvest of livestock products, and the eventual impoverishment of grazing lands by P removal may be a growing problem worldwide (Messiga et al, 2015; Sattari et al, 2016).…”

“…The P balances we report here are consistent with previous studies. For perennial grasses, Obour et al (2011) reported a negative P balance (−10.8 kg P ha −1 year −1 ) in unfertilized bahiagrass managed for hay production in Florida; and Messiga et al (2015) reported negative (ranging from −4.5 to −2.0 kg P ha −1 year −1 ) and positive P balances (ranging from 2.0 to 26.0 kg P ha −1 year −1 ) in grassland sites receiving lower and higher P fertilization, respectively, across Switzerland and Canada. For corn, P surpluses have been reported in continuous corn and corn‐wheat systems fertilized with P (Zhang et al, 2020), while other studies reported P deficits in conventional corn in spite of P fertilization (Maltais‐Landry et al, 2016).…”

“…In contrast, the P budgets for prospective perennial bioenergy crops are not well studied. For grassland crops, perhaps the closest analog that has been studied are pastures managed for hay production (Messiga et al, 2015; Obour et al, 2011; Sattari et al, 2016), although hay often is harvested prior to senescence and P retranslocation, and hay crops may be fertilized.…”

Effects of body size and root to shoot ratio on foliar nutrient resorption efficiency in Amaranthus mangostanus

“…Plant size actually reflected the amount of the nutrient demands and the size of the nutrient sink, given that the total nutrient accumulation and nutrient demand by reproductive organs increased with increasing plant biomass (Fig. and Appendix S4; see also Zhu et al., ; Marschner, ; Sardans and Peñuelas, ; Messiga et al., ). Thus, a plant with a large body potentially has large nutrient sink pools with high nutrient flux through the plant body.…”