Abstract
Corn was grown on strip-mine soil where anaerobically digested liquid sludge had been applied at a rate of 25 tons of sludge solids per acre. An adjacent plot of soil received no sludge. Corn grain grown on untreated strip-mine soil was characterized as immature and kernel size varied from small to intermediate, with about 20% of the kernels being diseased. In contrast, sludge-grown corn was well developed and corn yield increased fourfold over the untreated corn. Furthermore, a significant protein enhancement of 2.5 percentage points was also realized. Concentrations of seven heavy metals (Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd, Hg) increased in grain, cobs, and husks in that order. For corn grain grown on untreated and sludge-treated soils, essentially no significant differences were found in heavy metal content when compared to 11 other corn varieties grown normally. Heavy metal contents of both soil and sludge samples were also determined. 6 references, 4 figures, 8 tables.
Published Version
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