Abstract
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use comes with unsustainable financial and environmental costs, making it not attractive to small-scale and organic farmers. Poultry manure (PM) when available is a primary fertilizer source for small-scale and organic farmers but there is still limited research on its effects of specific crops and soil fertility under specific practices. The study investigated PM effects on garden egg in three seasons in Ghana and PM effects soil fertility in sandy-loam soils of Arizona after three years under flood irrigation and no-till. The PM application improved garden egg growth (dry matter by 73%) and increased yield by 66% in slightly acidic sandy-loam tropical soils, which could be related to soil mineral improvement. In the semi-arid soil, three years PM application increased cation exchange capacity (41%), P (471%), K (18%), S (244%), Ca (45%), Mg (31%), Zn (5%) and Mn (19%) with reduction in nitrate (−26%), Fe (−38%) and Cu (−11%). The reduction in the nitrate and Fe in the semi-arid Arizona cropland could be associated to flood irrigation and high soil pH, respectively. To gain the full potential from PM applications, best management practice is recommended to reduce nitrate leaching.
Highlights
Nitrogen (N) is a major plant nutrient for most plants and can be applied in the form of urea, ammonium, nitrate and ammonium nitrate
Based on the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRSC) soil map, the area is under the soil survey name Black Hills-Sedona Area (Coconino and Yavapai Counties Soil Survey-AZ639)
Results showed that establishment of garden eggs at 21 days after planting (DAP) in 2011 was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in plants treated with no Poultry manure (PM) than those treated with PM, while in 2020, plants treated with PM were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in plant establishment (Table 3)
Summary
Nitrogen (N) is a major plant nutrient for most plants and can be applied in the form of urea, ammonium, nitrate and ammonium nitrate. The nitrate-N form could still be leached by practices such as flood irrigation, especially on sandy soil, which needs more investigations in specific conditions It is an essential organic soil amendment resource, a complete fertilizer due to the composition of both major nutrients NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and minor elements for most commercial crop productions such as garden eggs in Ghana. PM with synthetic NKP fertilizers was reported to increased garden egg yield compared to the sole application of NPK in acidic soil in Ghana [11] without comparing sole PM to no fertilization and the linkage to soil mineral improvement, which is very important to organic and small-scale producers not using synthetic fertilizers in their operations. Soil fertility in a semi-arid fine sandy-loam pastureland under no-till and flood irrigation
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