SOIL FERTILITY AND POTATO PRODUCTIVITY UNDER DIFFERENT COMPOSTING TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The article presents the results of studies, describing the effect of various methods of peat-and-manure compost embedding on the fertility of sod-podzolic light loamy soil. When peat-and- manure compost is smothered with a longline plow PYa-3-35 at a depth of 25-27 cm compared to embedding with an ordi-nary plow by 20-22 cm and a heavy disc harrow by 15-17 cm, soil factors for growth and development of plants, edaphobiotics vital activity: acidity of soil solution, content of exchangeable potassium, mobile phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen, sum of the absorbed bases, base absorption capacity, humus content, ratio of humic acids to fulvic acids and carbon to nitrogen in humus. At the plot of a deep compost em-bedding in the 0-30-cm layer, the decomposition of linen cloth was more intense due to the participation of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in this process. In the profile of 0-20 cm, under aerobic conditions, mineralization of linen cloth occurred more quickly under usual and disk embedding, but in the layer of 20-30 cm under deep processing with a lack of oxygen, a slowdown in decomposition of organic matter was established. In this layer, the disintegration of linen cloth was 1.5-2 times slower than in the rest of the compost, which contributed to a longer preservation of embedded organic matter. The presence of a sufficient amount of organic matter in the lower soil layer promoted the intensive reproduction of a larg-er macrofauna of soil - earthworms. On this plot, the number of earthworms in the lower layer was great-er compared not only with the control variant, but with other fertilized plots. Owing to the more active formation of humic substance in the soil with the sealing of the peat compost at 25-27 cm with a two-tier plow, the content of waterproof aggregates was much higher, thereby significantly reducing the density of its build-up during vegetation. The most optimal soil factors, provided by long-combined processing, al-lowed obtaining a higher productivity of potato tubers and with better indicators of their quality.