Abstract
This study aims to highlight the major effects of biochar incorporation into potting soil substrate on plant growth and performance in early growth stages of five elite Italian varieties of durum wheat (Triticum durum). The biochars used were obtained from two contrasting feedstocks, namely wood chips and wheat straw, by gasification under high temperature conditions, and were applied in a greenhouse experiment either as pure or as nutrient-activated biochar obtained by incubation with digestate. The results of the experiment showed that specific genotypes as well as different treatments with biochar have significant effects on plant response when looking at shoot traits related to growth. The evaluated genotypes could be clustered in two main distinct groups presenting, respectively, significantly increasing (Duilio, Iride, and Saragolla varieties) and decreasing (Marco Aurelio and Grecale varieties) values of projected shoot system area (PSSA), fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW), and plant water loss by evapotranspiration (ET). All these traits were correlated with Pearson correlation coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.98. Concerning the treatment effect, a significant alteration of the mentioned plant traits was observed when applying biochar from wheat straw, characterized by very high electrical conductivity (EC), resulting in a reduction of 34.6% PSSA, 43.2% FW, 66.9% DW, and 36.0% ET, when compared to the control. Interestingly, the application of the same biochar after nutrient spiking with digestate determined about a 15–30% relief from the abovementioned reduction induced by the application of the sole pure wheat straw biochar. Our results reinforce the current basic knowledge available on biological soil amendments as biochar and digestate.
Highlights
Nowadays, the application of biochar, the fine-grained charcoal rich in recalcitrant organic carbon, represents a valuable and sustainable strategy in agriculture for enhancing soil fertility and, at the same time, mitigating anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission (Lehmann, 2007)
The agro-physiological traits related to the aboveground plant tissues, fresh weight (FW), and dry weight (DW), besides water content (WC), were evaluated at Tf
We found that plant area, substrate evapotranspiration (ET), fresh weight (FW), and dry weight (DW) were strongly correlated with each other, and that these plant traits disclosed significant genotype dependence, allowing for the clustering of the genotypes in two different groups: (1) with increased values of the abovementioned plant traits, exhibiting improved growth performance, like Duilio, Iride, and Saragolla, and (2) with decreased values of such plant traits, like Marco Aurelio and Grecale
Summary
The application of biochar, the fine-grained charcoal rich in recalcitrant organic carbon, represents a valuable and sustainable strategy in agriculture for enhancing soil fertility and, at the same time, mitigating anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission (Lehmann, 2007). Durum Desf.) is an economically important crop because of its unique characteristics and derived food products, pasta in particular. It provides an important source of energy, supplying a range of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional compounds essential in the human diet (Grant et al, 2012). Several studies report contrasting effects of biochar on wheat plant growth and yield, in a different way depending on biochar type, application rate, soil, and nutrient content. Alburquerque et al (2013) showed that in pot-grown durum wheat, biochar had a low effect on grain yield in nutrient-poor soil, while a 20–30% yield increase was observed when maximum mineral fertilization was applied. Under greenhouse conditions, Bista et al (2019) reported that biochar amendment at rates up to 22.4 Mg ha−1 increased wheat shoot and root biomass, independent of the addition of fertilizer, while a double biochar application rate determined a biomass reduction, under fertilized conditions
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