Paper presented at the 52nd CFCS Annual Meeting, Guadeloupe, July 10-16, 2016 Soil chemical properties The soil P content was significantly higher for vermicompost compared to chemical fertilizers and compost (GLM, p=0.04). However, the soil K amount was not different among treatments. Vermicompost increased the availability of P in soil due to earthworm activities (Loranger-Merciris et al. 2012).
Figure 4: Total P in leaves (on the left) and Total K in leaves (on the right) at 30 days for chemical fertilizers and organic fertilizers. The letters are indicating the difference between the treatments based on Tukey test. Plant chemical properties The amount of P and K in leaves were higher for vermicompost compared to chemical fertilizers and compost (GLM, p=0.02), Fig. 4.The amount of P in fruits was significantly higher for vermicompost and compost compared to chemical fertilizers (GLM, p=0.04), Fig. 5. There was no significant differences between the treatments for K; however, we observed a slightly increase of K fruit content for the vermicompost (Figure 5). Plants had a tendency to use soil nutrients for their fruits production in organic fertilizers.
Figure 5: Total P (% of dry material) in fruits (on the left) and Total K in fruits (on the right) at 4 months for chemical fertilizers and organic fertilizers. The letters are indicating the difference between the treatments based on Tukey test. Conclusion : In general, the availability of nutrients was not identical for all treatments based on the decomposition of organic matter. We observed that plants, which were treated with vermicompost and compost, had an easily access to nutrients especially for the P. These plants had a tendency to accumulate more nutrients in fruits compared to plants which were treated with chemical fertilizers. Bibliografic references Cole L, Buckland S.M, Bardgetta R.D. (2005). Relating microarthropod community structure and diversity to soil fertility manipulations in temperate grasslandSoil. Biology & Biochemistry. 37: 1707–1717. FAO. (2004). Utilisation des phosphates naturels pour une agriculture durable. http://www.fao.org/3/a-y5053f/y5053f00. htm#Contents. Leifeld L., Siebert S., Kögel-Knabner I. (2002). Changes in the chemical composition of soil organic matter after application of compost. European Journal of Soil Science. 53: 299-309. Loranger-Merciris G., Cabidocheb Y-M., Deloné B., Quénéhervé P., Ozier-Lafontaine H. (2012). How earthworm activities affect banana plant response to nematodes parasitism. Applied Soil Ecology 52:1– 8. Prabha K.P., Loretta Y.L., Usha R.K. (2007). An experimental study of vermin-biowaste composting for agricultural soil improvement, Bioresour. Technol. 99: 1672-1681. Smicikes K.D., Walker P.M., Kelly, T.R. (2008). Evaluation of compost for use as a soil amendment in corn and soybean production. Compost Science & Utilisation. 16(2): 183-191.
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