Dahlin, Sigrun
- Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
The fertiliser effect of adding wood ash or crushed rock to a low-fertility soil, compared with an unamended control, was assessed in a pot experiment with a perennial ryegrass-red clover mixture. Dinitrogen (N-2) fixation by the clover and translocation of fixed N to the grass were determined using N-15 natural abundance. The wood ash produced the highest accumulated clover biomass over two cuts, followed by the crushed rock. Chemical analyses suggested that the increase was due to K supply by the amendments. The wood ash also led to larger amounts of fixed N compared with the control. However, N-2 fixation was not increased as much as biomass amount, leading to dilution of plant N. There were minor or no treatment effects on mineralisation from soil N pools. This indicates that good-quality wood ash can be successfully used as a multi-element soil amendment to enhance clover growth on low-fertility soils.
Keywords
circular economy; nitrogen translocation; recycling products; soil amendment
Published in
Agricultural and Food Science
2017, volume: 26, number: 4, pages: 188-197
Publisher: SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURAL SOC FINLAND
SLU Authors
Stenberg, Maria
- Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Agricultural Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.63739
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93449