Effect of Composted Olive Cake on Soil Physical Properties

Abstract

Large areas in Jordan are planted with olive trees, resulting in the production of large amounts of olive cake (OC) and annually imposing a disposal and pollution burden. This research examined the use of OC compost as a soil amendment and its effect on soil physical properties such as soil water retention and infiltration in terms of depth of penetration and accumulated intake on two soil types: clay (S1) and silt loam (S2). Composting was intended to reduce the harmful effects of untreated OC. Olive cake was added to soil at three levels: 2%, 4%, and 8% by weight. Compared with control (untreated soil), adding composted OC caused significant improvements in soil physical properties considered. The changes in soil properties were, in general, proportional to the levels of compost added. For S2 at the 8% level, the depth of penetration and accumulated intake of water in soil were increased by 36.5% and 34.3%, respectively. For S1, the corresponding increases in the depth of penetration and accumulated intake were 27.1% and 35%, respectively. Furthermore the increase in soil water-holding capacity for S2 and S1 at the 8% level of compost addition was up to 10.3% and 16.5%, respectively.

Dataset on some soil properties improvement by the addition of olive pomace

“…The water accumulate intake (mL) is shown in Table 3 for clay soil and Table 4 for sandy clay soil as affected by addition of olive cake. The data shows that accumulate intake increased as olive pomace application rate increased, this in agreement with [3] , [4] , [6] , [7] .…”

Suppression of root-knot nematodes in potting mixes amended with different composted biowastes

“…However, the comparison among data from compost treatments and those of the infested and noninfested controls may suggest that the growth effect of the tested materials may be concurrently due to an increased plant nutrition, as exerted mainly by C 1 and C 3 , as well as to the nematode suppression, prevailing in the soil amended with C 4 . Composts from many raw materials, among which manures and FOP, were reported for a general improvement of physical soil properties and availability of nutrients (Sasanelli et al, 2002;Al-Widyan et al, 2005), though in our experiment N t content was consistently enriched only at the highest rates of the five materials and OM content was improved mainly by FOP composts. Finally, the soil pH was not affected by compost amendments and, therefore, could not be related to their nematicidal effect.…”

Quality assessment of composts prepared with olive mill wastewater and agricultural wastes

“…It is expected that using compost will enhance plant growth because of its physical and chemical properties (Al-Widyan et al, 2005;Paredes et al, 2005). Indeed, OM provided by compost Fig.…”

“…Research on this topic has shown that composting olive cake under well-defined conditions allows the production of composts having a fertilizing capacity comparable to that of ''conventional manure" (Hachicha et al, 2003;Al-Widyan et al, 2005). By composting OMW, researchers have obtained composts with a high level of humic compounds (Alburquerque et al, 2006;Baeta-Hall et al, 2005;Hachicha et al, 2006;Paredes et al, 2005;Tomati et al, 1996).…”