Effect of sewage sludge on productivity of winter wheat under field conditions of Polissya

Abstract

The paper shows the results of research concerning the study of effectiveness of usage alternative type of fertilizer - sewage sludge of treatment plants. It is established that sewage sludge has high agrochemical properties and it can be used as a separate organic and mineral fertilizer. We studied the influence of different doses of sewage sludge on the harvest of winter wheat in the field experiments of 2012–2014. It is proved that this sewage sludge significantly affects the yield of winter wheat plants. Thus previous researches enable to conclude, that the use of sewage sludge as an alternative type of organic and mineral fertilizers at land application of winter wheat plants significantly increases their crop capacity due to the use of 10 tons per hectare of sewage sludge. Thus, the yield of winter wheat was the largest in 2014, with the application of sewage sludge at a dose of 10 t/ha, and it was the smallest in the version of 1 t/ha of sewage sludge, but even under such conditions it is by 2.0 hwt/ha (autumn feeding) and by 4.0 hwt/ha (spring feeding) more than the control one. At the same time, under arid conditions, when grain was ripening in 2013, the highest yield was obtained also in the version with the highest dose of fertilizers, both during autumn and spring application, respectively, 29.7 hwt/ha and 28.5 hwt/ha. In addition, for the comparative assessment, ammonium nitrate was added in a dose of 100 kg/ha. Analysis of the research data shows that the difference between the variants with the largest dose of sewage sludge and the option where ammonium nitrate was applied is insignificant, which suggests that sewage sludge can serve as an alternative to mineral fertilizers. The obtained experimental data shows that the investigated factors significantly influenced the formation of yield of winter wheat.