The Study of Changes in Tomato Herbaceous Species Using Municipal Composts of Mashhad City

Abstract

While environmental and economic adversities in waste disposal and the decrease of organic soil have caused the enhancement of municipal composts' production and application, it is of great importance to choose and utilize an appropriate fertilizer in order to amend the soil. Therefore, the effects of using three types of municipal composts (powdered compost, sulphur granular compost, and sulphur granular compost with thiobacillus inoculum amounting 2% of sulphur) and their amounts were assessed through the application of complete randomized block design with a 35 factorial experiment in five rates of zero (control), 15, 30, 45, and 60 tons per hectare to plant tomato. These experiments were started in 2008 and repeated three times during the following years. The achieved findings indicated that applying municipal composts is useful in planting tomato. The comparison of various types of composts proved that scholars should place more priority on sulphur granular compost, rather than two other kinds. In developing countries, a decline in organic matter of arable soils and the process of decays in soil performance, and also residues which are returned to the soil are all caused by disregarding new technical advantages and knowledge, soil and water limitations, high density plantation, small surfaces of planted soil and increased rate of subsistence farming. A good supply of soil organic matter can prevent from soil decays. Organic matter is the key factor of chemical, physical and biological soil properties which indicates soil fertility and productivity. Iran, especial Khorasan province, is located in an arid and semi-arid region consisting of the soil with low organic contents due to the dry climates. Keshavarz stated that the amount of organic carbon is less than critical level in all regions of Khorasan Razavi province. However, high level of PH in the soil and presence of bicarbonate ion in the water have redoubled problems of plant nutrition. The obtained results of various researches indicated that sulphur can deplete PH in calcareous soil, and increase the solubility of micronutrients such as phosphorus, and also amend halomorphic and sodic soils in inappropriate waters. Some soil properties such as moisture and organic matter can enable thiobacillus bacteria to oxidize the sulphur and make it sulphuric acid, but in Iran, owing to the low rate of organic matter in arable soils, the aforementioned process does not appropriately occur. On the other hand, different environmental and economic problems in waste disposal can cause the enhancement of municipal composts' production and application; therefore, lots of composts have been produced in different European, American and other countries by applying advanced facilities and machineries with high efficiency and capacity to control the process of soil productivity. Utilizing compost is beneficial in many ways, for instance it can amend the soil organic matter to provide useful bacteria such as sulphur- oxidizing bacteria. Improving the status of soil productivity is subject to increasing the rate of sulphur and municipal composts as sources of organic soil, and applying calcareous soil with a suitable level of PH, and also enhancing the amount of nutrients' solubility such as phosphorus, iron, manganese, and zinc. So, the current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of various municipal composts in tomato. II. Review of literature In many conducted researches, sulphur is considered as an acid-generating material which is capable of amending calcareous and sodic soils (2). Sulphur is of great importance due to its beneficial effects when acidifying the local soil and increasing the capability of solubility in nutrients. Kalbasi et al. (21) conducted a field experiment and investigated the effect of sulphur treatments on yield and uptake of Fe, Mn and Zn by corn, sorghum and soybeans. The results of their study indicated that elemental sulphur (powder sulphur) decreased the soil PH and increased soil DTPA - extractable Fe, Mn and Zn. Iron and Zn uptake increased while Mn uptake decreased significantly by corn, sorghum and soybeans for almost all the treatments. The main problem of applying sulphur in arable soils is its oxidation after being used. This process can be appropriately done by