Soil Amendments with Sugarcane Bagasse and its Effect on Soil Humic Acid Contents and Chinese Cabbage Growth Components

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) which is a waste byproduct of sugarcane industry can be used as soil amendments to improve crop yield and provide reasonable economic means to recycle these wastes in an environment friendly manner. In this study experiments were conducted to test the rate of production of humic acid during the decomposition of SCB for 30 days and effect of SCB amendments on growth components of Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa, subsp. pekinensis). Humic acid were extracted using the classic alkali/acid fractionation method while FT-IR method was used to characterize humic acid. The results were shown that higher amount (0.2779g) of humic acid was extracted after 30 days, and small amount (0.0053g) was extracted from 0 day of SCB decomposition. The amount of humic acid extracted from SCB is significantly increased with respect to the time for decomposition of SCB. Growth performance of Chinese cabbage was recorded in terms of increase in plant height above ground, fresh and dry weight, root length, root fresh and dry weight. The experiment was conducted by 3 x 3 factorial designs employing three concentrations of SCB (0%, 2%, 5% and 10 %). The results showed that there is significant increase in plant growth components with increase of SCB concentration. It is recommended that application of SCB 10% will result in enhanced yield of Chinese cabbage. This may be due to high amount of humic acid produced by SCB after decomposition which leads to improve other soil characteristics.