Effect of Vegetable, Fruit And Garden (VFG) Waste Compost on Soil Physical Properties

Abstract

Compost and other organic amendments have been proven to improve the soil physical quality. In Flanders, vegetable, fruit and garden (VFG) wastes are collected selectively and composted. We studied the effects of the combined application of three different doses of VFG compost and cattle slurry and one treatment with only mineral N applied, during 9 years on a range of soil physical properties: aggregate stability, saturated hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, total pore volume and soil moisture retention. The organic amendments had a significantly beneficial impact (p<0.05) on all soil physical properties, except for the soil moisture retention which was hardly influenced by any of the treatments. The combined application of VFG compost and cattle slurry resulted in the best soil physical conditions. No significant differences were found in soil physical parameters between the unfertilized plots and plots that were fertilized with mineral N.

Organic waste recycling in agriculture and related effects on soil water retention and plant available water: a review

“…Hence, it is necessary to note the one exception (Hati et al 2007) in Table 3, which displayed a slightly higher PAW for the control; this may be linked to the high clay content. The data by Leroy et al (2008) with reduced PAW in compost-amended soils were not well predicted. Except for these studies, the data here confirmed their conclusion (Rawls et al 2003) that water retention at FC is more strongly affected by OC content than that at WP, which means increases in PAW.…”

“…Two studies are not included in Fig. 7, Bandyopadhyay et al (2011) did not report FC or WP, and in the study of Leroy et al (2008), the reductions in FC and PAW cannot be explained. Concerning statement 1 of Khaleel et al (1981), there appears to be a trend confirming larger percent increases in FC and WP for coarser-textured soils (Fig.…”

“…However, both types of texture led to similar changes in PAW; the range was −21.6 to 48.1%, while most studies showed increases between 0 and 30%. Reductions in PAW were observed in two of the studies (Leroy et al 2008;Du et al 2009), which therefore are not included in Fig. 9.…”

“…For 31 of 36 amended treatments, an increase in PAW was observed; in five cases, PAW decreased. Four of the cases with decreases in PAW in amended plots were encountered in a single study (Leroy et al 2008): treatment IDs 15-18. However, this aspect was not part of their discussion, and hence, no potential reasons were mentioned.…”

“…The dashed lines roughly divide coarser-from finer-textured soils in both (a, b). Data from Leroy et al (2008) are excluded (FC field capacity, WP wilting point, ΔOCa absolute change in organic carbon) finer and coarser. Sandy loams for instance are considered as coarser-textured, while silt loams are considered as finertextured soils (c.f.…”