Scholarly record

USE OF ORGANIC-MINERAL FERTILIZERS AS ALTERNATIVE TO CONVENTIONAL ORGANIC AND MINERAL FERTILIZERS: EFFECT ON SOIL QUALITY

Jakub Elbl

Abstract

Cultivation of high-yielding crops (winter wheat, corn, oil seed rape etc.) represents the only opportunity for Czech farmers to achieve profitable economic results. On the other hand, the above crops have significant demands on nutrients intake from soil. The withdrawn nutrients must be returned which is mainly carried out by mineral fertilizes. Nevertheless, it is not sustainable way from the long-term point of view. The most convenient source of nutrients are fertilizers of organic origin (compost, manure etc.). However, these are not available for farmers in sufficient amount and quality. Therefore, it is necessary to look for alternative sources such as organic-mineral fertilizers. This work deals with the effect of selected soil amendments application on soil quality which was expressed and monitored by soil indicators (content of Nmin; Cox and humus). To demonstrate the effect of different soil amendments, the pot experiment with winter wheat as indicator plant was prepared. Five variants of the experiment were prepared: (a) control; (b) organic-mineral fertilizer EXPLORER 21 (EXP; 6 250 kg/ha); (c) organic-mineral fertilizer BLACK PEARL (BP; 3 750 kg/ha); (d) organic waste compost Black Dragon (CP; 35 000 kg/ha); (e) mineral fertilizer (MF; 375 kg/ha). Doses of EXP, BP and MF fertilizers have been calculated in order to apply the same amount of N as into variant with CP. The dose of compost (30 000 kg/ha) was set as default as it presented 375 kg N/ha. The measured values show significantly (? = 0.05) different effects of individual amendments on selected parameters and potential differences between organic-minerals fertilizers (EXP, BP), CP and MF. Application of all amendments (EXP, BP, CP) have caused increase in content of individual forms of Nmin in soil (on average by more than 10% compared to control), increase in plant biomass production (on average more than by 15 % compared to control) and increase in humus content (on average by more than 15 % compared to control and 20 % to variant with MF). In summary, this study clearly shows there are existing alternatives to convectional mineral nutrition and also to conventional organic fertilizer (CP) that may positively affect soil quality. In the experiment, there were applied significantly higher doses than those recommended by the manufacturer, but no negative impacts on biomass production or soil properties were found. The EXP and BP fertilizers applied at the given doses had the same positive effect on soil fertility as the CP.

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