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

• Dahlin, Sigrun

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Stenberg, Maria

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93449