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Title: PLANT UPTAKE AND LEACHING POTENTIAL OF SELECTED MACRONUTRIENTS FROM SOILS AMENDED WITH POULTRY LITTER

Author
item SAJWAN, K - SAVANNAH STATE UNIV
item PARAMASIVAM, S - SAVANNAH STATE UNIV
item Alva, Ashok
item RICHARDSON, J - SAVANNAH STATE UNIV
item GHUMAN, G - SAVANNAH STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Plant Nutrition Colloquium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2005
Publication Date: 9/1/2005
Citation: Sajwan, K.S., Paramasivam, S., Alva, A.K., Richardson, J.P., Ghuman, G.S. 2005. Plant uptake and leaching potential of selected macronutrients from soils amended with poultry litter. Plant Nutrition Colloquium Proceedings. Beijing, China. On CD.

Interpretive Summary: Organic soil amendments, such as poultry litter, provide benefits by improving soil quality as well as providing a source of some nutrients. Poultry litter is generally applied in large amounts due to the long time required for mineralization of nutrients into plant available forms. However, some nutrients may be readily available and could be subject to leaching in the soil profile. A sandy soil and a loamy sand were used in this study with either 0, 2, 5, 10, or 20 tonns/ha poultry litter amendment. Collard green seedlings were grown for 6 weeks. Dry matter yields of collard greens increased with an increase in poultry litter rate up to 10 tonns/ha. However, the concentrations of Ca, Mg, and P in the plant dry matter peaked at a much lower rate of poultry litter amendment, i.e. 2 to 5 tonns/ha. A parallel experiment was conducted to study the leaching losses of Ca, Mg, K and NH4 with 0, 5, 10, and 20 tonns/ha rates of poultry litter amendment. Leaching of the above nutrients increased with an increase in poultry litter amendment. Leaching of all nutrients were consistently greater from the sandy soil as compared to that from the loamy sand at all rates of poultry litter amendment.

Technical Abstract: Poultry litter (PL) could provide macronutrients such as N, P, K, Ca, and Mg to plants. However, some of these macronutrients are also susceptible for leaching, thereby the application of PL may contribute to nutrient loading into surface and groundwater. A greenhouse study was conducted in sandy soil of Florida (Candler fine sand, pH=6.8) and in loamy sand of Georgia (Ogeechee loamy sand, pH=5.2) to assess the plant uptake of selected macronutrients from soils amended with PL at 0, 2, 5, 10, and 20 Mg ha-1 rates. Seven seedlings of collard greens (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) were grown for 6 weeks and dry matter yield and concentrations of macronutrients were measured in the leaf, shoot, and root parts. The dry matter yield increased with increasing rates of amendments up to 10.0 Mg ha-1 and then decreased at the highest rate of PL amendment. However, the concentrations of Ca, Mg, and P increased only up to 2 to 5 Mg ha-1 and greater accumulation was in leaf compared to roots. Leaching of cationic nutrients increased with increasing rates of PL, and the leaching potential was greater in sandy soil than in loamy sand. Results of this study indicated that soil factors and application rates should be taken into consideration when using PL as soil amendment to provide plant nutrients.