Biochar-compost mixture as amendment for improvement of polybag-growing media and oil palm seedlings at main nursery stage

International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture, Nov 2017

Production of oil palm seedling in the nursery mainly utilises top soil as polybag medium. These soils, especially in tropical regions, are acidic and have low organic matter content. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) biochar and compost incorporation as amendment in polybag medium for oil palm seedlings growth at the nursery stage. A polybag experiment was conducted with four biochar rates (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% w/w C addition), two compost rates (0 and 30% v/v), and two fertiliser application rates (75 and 100% of recommended rate). The effects of biochar, compost, and biochar-compost combination on oil palm seedling growth was evaluated and the effectiveness of EFB biochar in retaining soil nutrients was determined indirectly by measuring amount of nutrient leached through the polybag medium. Biochar, compost, and biochar-compost amendment improved polybag media’s chemical properties (pH, total C and N, C:N ratio, CEC, Mg, and Ca). There were no significant effects of the amendments on shoot biomass. However, root growth and shoot:root ratio significantly improved with 1.5% w/w C addition and 30% (v/v) compost with 75% recommended fertiliser rates applied. Furthermore, nutrient leaching measurement indicates that, EFB biochar significantly reduced ammonium-N leaching up to 21–46%. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of biochar and compost co-application to improve the chemical properties of polybag medium and root development of oil palm seedlings.

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Biochar-compost mixture as amendment for improvement of polybag-growing media and oil palm seedlings at main nursery stage

International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture March 2018, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 11–23 | Cite as Biochar-compost mixture as amendment for improvement of polybag-growing media and oil palm seedlings at main nursery stage AuthorsAuthors and affiliations Rovica RadinRosenani Abu BakarChe Fauziah IshakSiti Hajar AhmadLim Chin Tsong Open Access Original Research First Online: 17 November 2017 2k Downloads 4 Citations Abstract Purpose Production of oil palm seedling in the nursery mainly utilises top soil as polybag medium. These soils, especially in tropical regions, are acidic and have low organic matter content. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) biochar and compost incorporation as amendment in polybag medium for oil palm seedlings growth at the nursery stage. Methods A polybag experiment was conducted with four biochar rates (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% w/w C addition), two compost rates (0 and 30% v/v), and two fertiliser application rates (75 and 100% of recommended rate). The effects of biochar, compost, and biochar-compost combination on oil palm seedling growth was evaluated and the effectiveness of EFB biochar in retaining soil nutrients was determined indirectly by measuring amount of nutrient leached through the polybag medium. Results Biochar, compost, and biochar-compost amendment improved polybag media’s chemical properties (pH, total C and N, C:N ratio, CEC, Mg, and Ca). There were no significant effects of the amendments on shoot biomass. However, root growth and shoot:root ratio significantly improved with 1.5% w/w C addition and 30% (v/v) compost with 75% recommended fertiliser rates applied. Furthermore, nutrient leaching measurement indicates that, EFB biochar significantly reduced ammonium-N leaching up to 21–46%. Conclusions Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of biochar and compost co-application to improve the chemical properties of polybag medium and root development of oil palm seedlings. KeywordsOil palm nursery Oil palm waste Biochar Compost Nutrient retention  Introduction The Malaysian oil palm industry has grown tremendously over the past few decades and has become a major contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP) from agriculture sector, amounting to 46.9% in 2015 (DOSM 2017). Currently, oil palm plantation occupied 5.39 million ha of total planting area with production of 20 million tonnes of crude palm oil (MPOB 2016), making the most significant plantation commodity in Malaysia. There are two main stages in oil palm cultivation: nursery stage and renewal or definitive area, where the palms are grown for 20–25 years, the economic life period of oil palm (Zulkifli et al. 2010). Seedlings are established in the nursery stage for 10–14 months before field planting. For good oil palm establishment after transplanting in the field, it is uttermost importance to produce good quality oil palm seedlings (Gillbanks 2003; Mathews et al. 2008). A common practice of oil palm seedling production in the nursery is using top soils as the polybag medium. Malaysian soils (mostly Ultisols and Oxisols) are known to be highly weathered acidic soils with low organic matter content. Mineral fertilisers are normally used as sources of nutrients for raising a good vegetative growth of oil palm seedlings (Paramananthan 2003; Verheye 2010). However, the efforts to maintain soil nutrient status through chemical fertilisation come with certain cost, negative environmental impact, and increase in production cost of oil palm seedlings. Thus, there is a need for sustainable production of good oil palm seedlings, potentially with recycled organic waste in the form of compost and biochar, hence leading to less chemical fertiliser usage. Several studies of oil palm seedling in the nursery stage showed a positive effect of soil amended with organic material on the vegetative growth of oil palm seedlings (Danso et al. 2013; Suryanto et al. 2015). The most common organic material used as soil amendment are compost and animal manure (Scotti et al. 2015). Compost, a by-product of organics recycling programme, contains significant amount of humic substances, valuable plant nutrients, and essential trace elements (Donn et al. 2014; Bedada et al. 2014). It restores soil organic matter which has direct effects on soil microbial biomass and enzyme activities (Ouni et al. 2013; Blanchet et al. 2016), consequently improving crop growth and yield (D’Hose et al. 2014; Ninh et al. 2015). In the past decade, the use of biochar as a soil amendment and tool for C sequestration has a good potential in increasing crop productivity. Biochar is a carbonaceous material produced by pyrolysis of biomass in a limited oxygen condition (Schahczenski 2010). Numerous studies showed that adding biochar into infertile soils can potentially increase the cation exchange capacity of the soil and nutrient sorption (Jien a (...truncated)


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Radin, Rovica, Abu Bakar, Rosenani, Ishak, Che Fauziah, Ahmad, Siti Hajar, Tsong, Lim Chin. Biochar-compost mixture as amendment for improvement of polybag-growing media and oil palm seedlings at main nursery stage, International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture, 2017, pp. 11-23, Volume 7, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s40093-017-0185-3