Effects of Three Different Biochars Enriched with Dairy Effluent on Wheat Growth
Abstract
Biochars produced from agricultural residues can be used to increase nutrient uptake of plants by improving physical, chemical and biological quality of soils. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of three biochar types (corn cob, bean residues and rice husk) combined with different mineral fertilizer levels and dairy effluent (DE) added to sandy loam and loamy textured soils on wheat growth. The biochars immersed with nutrient rich DE were applied at 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0% (w/w) and combined with five fertilization levels (0%, 75%-low and 50% - low, 100% - complete and 100% - complete + biochar without DE). Biochar type had no effect on dry matter yield (DM) of wheat except 3.0% dose. Biochar (both with and without DE) combined with the highest fertilizer rate led to a higher DM compared to low fertilizer rates. The highest DM yield (307 mg plant-1) was recorded in loamy sand x 1% biochar x 100%-complete fertilizer interaction. Biochar addition to a nutrient poor, slightly alkaline soil had a little effect on DM in the absence of adequate fertilizer. The difference in DM yield between 0% and 50%-low fertilizer doses in 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0% biochar doses was 12.8, 24.4, 48.8 and 55.2%, respectively. The increase in DM yield difference between the fertilizer doses indicates that the availability of nutrients increases with the increase in biochar doses. The results revealed that biochars don’t contain sufficient plant nutrient even enriched with DE, therefore, nutrients should be co-applied with biochar to obtain expected crop yield.
Keywords
Biochar . Corncob . Rice Husk . Bean . Wheat . Dry Matter Yield