Influence of biomass ash, lime and gypsum fertilization on macro- and microelement contents in the soil and grains of spring wheat

Abstract

The addition of lime and gypsum to wood ash and straw ash were used in the studies. The subject of the study was estimation of the fertilization effect of biomass, ash, gypsum and lime on the content of macro- and microelements in soil and grain of spring wheat. The experiment was carried out in 2016 in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. The study compared three factors: wood ash of deciduous and coniferous trees and cereal straw ash (I. factor), two types of ash additions: lime or gypsum (mixture composition: 60% ash and 40% lime or gypsum) (II. factor), three doses of ash with lime or gypsum mixture: 2, 4, 6 Mg·ha−1 and control (III. factor). The analysis of the microelements contents (copper, chromium, nickel and lead) in the soil shows that the application of fertilizer in a form of wood or straw ash as well as PROFITKALK lime or SulfoPROFIT gypsum did not exceed the threshold values for the soil from the first group of land specified in Regulation of the Minister of the Environment of September 1, 2016 on the manner of assessing the pollution of the earth’s surface. After application of biomass ashes (wood or straw) an increase of some macroelements (potassium, phosphorus and calcium) in the soil was observed. The experiment did not reveal any influence of applied fertilization in the form of wood or straw ash nor PROFITKALK lime nor SulfoPROFIT gypsum on changes in iron, manganese and zinc abundance in grains of spring wheat.

Study on the Possibilities of Natural Use of Ash Granulate Obtained from the Combustion of Pellets from Plant Biomass

“…It is also noteworthy that there was a relatively high content of Mn-3840 mg•kg −1 , Zn-236 mg•kg −1 , Cr-230 mg•kg −1 and Cu-66.4 mg•kg −1 ( Table 5). The content of Ca in the ash was high compared to the findings of References [16,23,24]; it oscillates around the highest value of the content found by Ribbing [43] and is well below the value reported by other authors [2,6,17,25,26]. In general, the content of Ca in ash biomass varies greatly depending on its origin, ranging from 3.6 to 35.3% [12].…”

“…The content of Fe should be regarded as relatively low when compared to the results in references [2,17,43] but it is high in the context of the other data [12,23,25,26]. A medium content of Mg was found when compared to the results in references [2,16,17,43] but it was high in the context of the other data [23,25,26].…”

“…Although it is mentioned in some publications that the reaction of ash from the combustion of clean straw can be lower (pH 5-9) [23,24]. On the other hand, some researchers [16] reported similar (pH 10-11) or even higher (pH above 12) [25] values for the ash from biomass. The unusually high pH of bentonite-pH-H 2 O 8.8-8.9 (the expected value for clay material based on montmorillonite group minerals was below 5.0) suggests that the crystalline structure of clay minerals was partially substituted with sodium and calcium.…”

“…Most authors focus on using bottom ash and fly ash from the combustion of lignite in coal-fired power plants as a substitute for lime fertilizer. In each of these cases, the high content of calcium compounds [2,6,16,17,[23][24][25][26] and the high values of pH of ash (in the range of 10-12 [16,25]) indicates the correctness of such form of use. In the context of soil reclamation processes and construction activities (in civil engineering) as well, it is often mentioned that there are possibilities of using ash for improving sorption properties, stabilization of swelling soils and, if it has good strength characteristics, also as an aggregate substitute [22,[27][28][29][30].…”

Can Phosphorus from Recycled Fertilisers Replace Conventional Sources? An Agronomic Evaluation in Field-Scale Experiments on Temperate Luvisols

“…The authors also noted that the P content in grain and straw increased when SSA was applied at 65.4 kg P/ha, but no SP at the same P dose was applied to compare, so this result is inconclusive. Other field studies on recycling P products, such as ashes made of wood and cereal straw, also showed results similar to ours, with no effect on P content in wheat grain [66] or the same effect on P content in barley grain and straw as the SP applied at the same P dose performed [67].…”