Enhancing Soil Fertility of Apple Orchard through Biochar and Fertilizer Amendments: A Soil Aggregation Study
Journal Title: Journal of Soil, Plant and Environment - Year 2023, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
The declining productivity of apple trees can be attributed to the adverse effects of unbalanced climatic conditions and dynamic soil properties. Addressing these challenges through sustainable agricultural practices is crucial to improving apple orchard productivity and ensuring a resilient agricultural system. To enhance the function of fragile ecosystem services, the addition of biochar at an appropriate rate along with chemical fertilizers (NPK) is considered an efficient approach for improving apple trees productivity. The treatments combinations were 0 t ha-1 (Ck), 4 t ha-1 (T1), 8 t ha-1 (T2), 12 t ha-1 (T3), 16 t ha-1 (T4), and 20 t ha-1 (T5). Our results demonstrated that, biochar addition rate in the T5 significantly increased macro-aggregates (WSAs > 0.25 mm), mean weight diameter (MWD) and therefore decreased micro-aggregates (WSAs < 0.25 mm) compare to the control. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (T.N) in both the bulk soil and water stable aggregates (WSAs) showed similar and an increased trend with biochar addition rate. However, the trend of C:N ratio was in opposition with biochar addition rate for both the bulk soil and WSAs. Additionally, biochar addition rate (T5) significantly intensified partitioning proportion (%) of the SOC, and T.N in WSAs > 0.25 mm, and WSAs < 0.25 mm and therefore showed non significance differences for the others treatments. Such a partitioning proportion of the WSAs 0.5-0.25 mm were lower than the WSAs > 0.5 mm and WSAs < 0.25 mm. These results suggested that biochar addition rate (T5) with chemical fertilizer had a significant effect on the stability of aggregates associated SOC, T.N, and C:N ratio and it may also have a capability in optimizing partitioning proportion (%) of the SOC and T.N in WSAs > 0.25 mm. Thus, it is therefore suggested that biochar addition rate (T5) with chemical fertilizers is the best preference for the stability and optimization of the aggregate associated SOC and T.N which may enhance partitioning proportion (%) of the SOC and T.N in an apple growing soil.
Authors and Affiliations
Azaz Shakir, Jan Bocianowski
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP725024
- DOI https://doi.org/10.56946/jspae.v2i2.277
- Views 139
- Downloads 0
Sources, Persistence, Ecotoxicology and Transformations of Anticancer Pharmaceutical Drug Residues in the Soil Environment: A Review
Release and environmental consequences of drug residues pose a major challenge for soil quality management. This review aims to synthesis the literature related to the transformations of anticancer drugs at the soil-wate...
Productivity and the Qualitative Response of Sorghum to Different Planting Patterns and Various Cultivars
Planting patterns and different cultivars play a significant role in forage crops quality and productivity. Therefore, we conducted a field experiment under different planting patterns and cultivars to evaluate sorghum c...
Integrated Effect of Heavy Metal-Tolerant Rhizobacteria and Phosphorus on Maize Growth and Phosphorus Bioavailability in Contaminated Soil
Toxic metals significantly influence agricultural crop yields and have adverse effects on animals and human Hence, in the current study impact of different strains of phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and levels of...
Identification of Heat Stress Tolerant Wheat Genotype Using Stress Tolerance Indices
This experiment was conducted to identify heat stress tolerant wheat genotypes using stress tolerance indices. A total of twenty wheat genotypes, provided by the National Wheat Research Program (NWRP) in Bhairahawa, were...
Effect of Olive Mill Wastes on Soil Physicochemical Properties and Maize Yield Under Saline Soil Conditions
The addition of olive mill wastes (OMW) to agricultural soils has becoming a common disposal strategy to improve the soil’s physical and chemical properties. There is a dearth of information concerning the impact of OMW...