Alleviation of Soil Acidity by Application of Compost for Grain Maize Production
Returning organic materials in the form of compost can be an alternative method of alleviating soil acidity. This is because decomposted organic materials help chelate AI, thereby reducing its toxicity to crop. A set of three experiments was conducted in a glasshouse at UPM. The first experiment...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2002
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/10585/1/FP_2002_10.pdf |
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| Summary: | Returning organic materials in the form of compost can be an alternative
method of alleviating soil acidity. This is because decomposted organic
materials help chelate AI, thereby reducing its toxicity to crop. A set of three
experiments was conducted in a glasshouse at UPM. The first experiment was
the used of inoculant and activator in composting. This experiment was to
evaluate the effectiveness of different type of inoculants as decomposters. The
second experiment was a pot experiment using grain maize variety PJ-58 as a
test crop to determine the best compost. The soil type was the Bungor series
soil (Typic Paleudult). The third experiment (also pot experiment) was to grow
grain maize on the Bungor and Kuantan series soils in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of compost as a soil ameliorant. The results indicated that during compo sting the temperature of the compost
increased up to > 60˚C. This showed that effective microorganisms (EM) is a
good inoculant to decompose palm oil mill effluent. It was found that compost
application had alleviated soil acidity. Applying compost at the rate of 20 t1ha
plus 2 t GML/ha increased soil pH from 4.6 to 5.7. The exchangeable K, Ca
and Mg had also increased. This treatment gave the best result.
For the Bungor series soil, the critical Ca concentration in the tissue was 0.65
%, while the critical Mg concentration it was 0.42 %. The critical
exchangeable Ca concentration was 2.7 cmol/kg soil. The best compost was
compost type 2 (CT2) where EM as an inoculant while urea and rice branch as
an activator was applied. Its application to the soil gave the high exchangeable
Ca and Mg, soil cation exchange capacity and the lowest exchangeable AI. It
also gave the highest maize dry weight. It was noted that compost application
had improved soil fertility leading to increase in grain maize yield. |
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