Siliceous Rocks in the Fertilizer System of Agricultural Crops

Abstract

Over the past 25 years, the influence of siliceous rocks (diatomite, zeolite, flask) on soil properties (typical chernozem, leached chernozem), yield and quality of agricultural crops (cereals, potatoes and vegetables, technical) when used both in pure form and together with mineral fertilizers and bird droppings has been studied. The possibility of creating new types of more effective fertilizers based on siliceous rocks by enriching them with elements or compounds (in particular amino acids) that most fully meet the requirements of crops has been studied. Studies have shown that the yield of grain crops when using diatomite as a fertilizer is little inferior to mineral fertilizers. Thus, the increase in grain yield of winter wheat on average over all the years of research reached 0.60–1.30, spring wheat – 0.15–0.67, barley – 0.50–0.93 t/ha. The increase in corn grain yield, depending on the dose of zeolite application, ranged from 0.93 (dose of 500 kg/ha) to 1.36 (dose of 2000 kg/ha) t/ha. Potatoes and vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, table beets), as well as industrial crops (sugar beet, sunflower) are highly responsive to the use of siliceous products as fertilizers. In particular, the yield of sugar beet root crops increased by 6.5 t/ha on average when diatomite was applied at a dose of 3 t/ha, and in some years – up to 8.6 t/ha. The increase in crop yield increased very significantly when combined with nitrogen fertilizers from N30 to N60 – by 11.3 and 12.5 t/ha. The high efficiency of silicon-containing rocks as fertilizers of agricultural crops is due to their complex influence on the fundamental properties of the soil: physical (structural condition, soil density, structure of the arable layer), biological (activity of soil microorganisms), chemical (nutritional regime, environmental safety), as well as on the protective properties of plants.