The influence of composts on yield and chemical elements of winter wheat and spring barley

Abstract

In 2013-2014, research was carried out on a Bathihypogleyi-Haplic Luvisol (LVh-gld-w) soil with predominant sandy loam and pH KCl 4.9-5.2 with a view to finding out how composts produced from sewage sludge, green waste and biogas production waste influenced grain and straw yields of winter wheat grown in the first year after compost incorporation and spring barley grown in the second year after incorporation as well as the concentrations of nitrogen, potassium and heavy metals in grain and straw. The field experiment was conducted in the fields of Elmininkai Experimental Station (Anykščiai distr., Eastern Lithuania) of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry. The investigations proved that the composts incorporated without mineral fertilizer did not increase grain and straw of winter wheat grown in the first year after incorporation. During the second year, the composts increased the spring barley grain yield as follows: biogas -by 72.9%, green waste -68.6%, cattle manure -58.9% and sewage sludge -45.2%. The application of composts on the background of mineral fertilizers did not significantly increase winter wheat and spring barley grain and straw yields compared with mineral fertilizers. The concentration of chemical elements in plants depended on the compost degradation process in soil. During the first year after incorporation of composts, nitrogen (N) concentration in winter wheat grain was increased by biogas, and during the second year -by sewage sludge and green waste composts in spring barley grain. Potassium (K) concentration in winter wheat and spring barley straw was increased by cattle manure, biogas and sewage sludge composts. During the first year, all composts increased phosphorus (P) concentration in winter wheat straw. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Ni, Pb, Zn, Mn and Cu) in grain and straw were close to the background levels. The composts used in the study increased the content of nickel in winter wheat and spring barley grain and straw somewhat more significantly.

The influence of composts on potato tuber, spring oilseed rape seed and threshing residue yields and concentrations of chemical elements in them

“…Together with the composts of all investigated types we incorporated 170 kg ha -1 of nitrogen (N) into soil, therefore, different amounts of composts were applied: 16.1 t ha -1 of sewage sludge, 23.0 t ha -1 of biogas production waste, 31.2 t ha -1 of green waste compost and 45.3 t ha -1 of manure compost. The influence of the composts used on the yield and quality of the first two plants in the crop rotation (winter wheat and spring barley) was described in this journal previously (Staugaitis et al, 2016), and for the purposes of this article, we discuss their influence on potatoes and the spring oilseed rape grown after the potato crop following the second compost incorporation.…”

“…The first ten-day period of September was excessive in rainfall, the second and third ten day periods were close to optimal, consequently, these summer months were unfavourable for potato growth and tuber development. (Elmininkai Meteorological Station, 2015-2016 In the beginning of May 2016, a moderate drought occurred after spring oilseed rape sowing; however, during the second ten-day period of May the weather was close to optimal irrigation and the third period was a very heavy drought, thus spring oilseed rape tillering was poor. In June, a moderate drought occurred (HTC = 0.64); however, the rest of the spring oilseed rape growth period was abundant in rainfall.…”

The dependence of summer barley growing and development on the concentration of naphthalene in soil

“…Komposto gamybos metu susidaro naujas produktas, turintis augalams ir dirvožemiui reikalingų maistinių medžiagų, mikro-ir makroelementų bei organinės medžiagos (Compost production and use in the EU, 2007). Kompostas vertinamas kaip kompleksinė medžiaga, turinti gana įvairią ir kintančią sudėtį, kuri priklauso nuo pradinės komposto žaliavos (prieš mikroorganizmų veiklos pradžią) ir komposto gamybos proceso (Adediran et al, 2003;Riedel et al, 2008;Staugaitis et al, 2016). Kompostuojant susidaro ne tik dirvožemiui ir augalams naudingos, bet ir aplinkai pavojingos medžiagos: sunkieji metalai ir patvarūs organiniai junginiai (Cesaro et al, 2015).…”

Chemical Waste and Allied Products

“…The results showed that highly diluted piggery digestate can be a suitable medium for culturing microalgae, while a high removal efficiency (up to90%) for ammonia, total nitrogen, and phosphate were obtained. Staugaitis et al (2016) investigated the influence of composts on the yield and chemical elements of winter wheat and spring barley. This study indicated that composts processed with no mineral fertilizer did not enhance grain and straw production from winter wheat, but the composts did increase the spring barley grain yield.…”