This study was carried out to investigate the effect of slurry composting and biofiltration (SCB) liquid manure application on shoot growth, fruit qualities and soil chemical properties in peach orchard. SCB liquid manure was fertigated ten times from April to October in SCB plot, whereas chemical fertilizer was treated two times as basal and additional fertilizers in control plot. The shoot growth, leaf nitrogen and potassium content, soil exchangeable K, fruit weight and yield were higher in SCB plot than in control. Soluble solid content and acidity, soil organic matter, soil available phosphate and soil exchangeable Mg showed no significant difference between treatments, and the leaf calcium and magnesium content were lower in SCB plot than in control. In conclusion, fertigating SCB liquid manure in peach orchard has positive effects on fruit weight and yield, and it is suggested that periodical soil testing is needed because of the possibility of K accumulation in SCB liquid manure treated soil when the orchard is fertigated based on the soil nitrogen content.
The causes of blossom-end rot (BER) are still not understood clearly, although there was a lot of research on the development of BER over 100 years. This experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of Ca content of fruit on the incidence of BER in red pepper. BER affected fruits and healthy fruits had been harvested and the samples were divided into two parts, the upper and the lower, for chemical analysis to determine the content of mineral nutrients in the tissue. The content of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) was higher in the BER affected fruits and the difference of each nutrient content was revealed much larger in the lower part of the fruit but there were no significant differences in calcium content between the BER and the healthy fruits of red pepper, in this experiment. The results indicate that it is difficult to find a certain relation between the calcium content of the fruit and the occurrence of blossom-end rot.
Many organic fruit growers adopt cover cropping in their orchards to improve soil properties. A field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of cutting frequency of cover crop (CF) and liquid manure application (LM) on green manure production (GMP) and returnable nutrient content (RNC) in pear orchard. The combined effects of CF and LM were tested at two levels, respectively, with liquid manure (L 1 ) and without liquid manure (L 0 ). After that, cover crops were cut once (C 1 ) and three times (C 3 ) in rye, and twice (C 2 ) and four times (C 4 ) in hairy vetch. The result showed that main factors related to green manure production were different depending on the species. In rye, LM was more effective in increasing the dry weight of cover crop and RNC than CF. In contrast, the parameters were more affected by CF rather than LM in hairy vetch. Thus, it is suggested that different management technique is needed depending on the cover crop species in order to maximize the green manure production in pear orchard.
Two phases of experiment were conducted to produce compost using sewage sludge and sawdust as mixing materials to determine their chemical properties and the performance of selected test crops. The first phase was done to produce compost as potting media and the second phase was done to test the efficacy of the produced compost. With regard to some chemical properties of the compost, pH was moderately acidic (5.11 to 5.58) while the OM, N, P, and K contents of the compost were 23.8-35.9, 1.12-1.56, 254.9-555.7, and 40.4-62.6, respectively.
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