Availability of nutrients from an accelerated compost for maize (Zea mays) production in two soil types

Abstract

ABSTRACTAccelerated composting is becoming popular globally. This has led to a commercial accelerated compost (AC); OBD-plus. This study, therefore, evaluated the availability of nutrients from this AC for maize (Zea mays) production in two common soil types; Alfisol and Ultisol. The AC at the rates of 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 kg N/ha, mineral fertilizer (NPK 15–15-15) and conventional compost (CC) at the rate of 60 kg N/ha each, were mixed with 5 kg soil (Alfisol and Ultisol) in pots, and arranged in a completely randomised design with three replications. Pots without any amendment served as control. Maize was grown at two plants/pot for six weeks, to determine the dry matter and N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and K (potassium) uptake. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at α0.05. The results showed that N, P, and K uptake of maize plants increased with an increase in the rate of the accelerated compost in both soil types. The N uptake of maize treated with 60 kg N/ha AC (403 and 301 mg/plant) was comparable with 60 kg N/ha NPK (311 and 325 mg/plant) and 60 kg N/ha CC (452 and 215 mg/plant) in Alfisol and Ultisol, respectively. The AC also improved P and K uptake, however, P and K uptake values were influenced by soil types, whereby the performance was better on Alfisol than Ultisol. It could be concluded that the nutrients from OBD-plus accelerated compost evaluated were available to maize plants similar to conventional compost and mineral fertilizers, in spite of its shorter composting duration.