CHANGES IN SOIL QUALITY OVER FIVE CONSECUTIVE VEGETABLE CROPS FOLLOWING THE APPLICATION OF GARDEN ORGANICS COMPOST

A field experiment was established near Camden in south west Sydney, Australia in 2005 to evaluate the effect of garden organics compost on vegetable production and soil quality relative to conventional practice.
Treatments were full compost (125 dry t/ha), half compost (62.5 dry t/ha supplemented by inorganic fertilisers), conventional farmers practice (mixture of poultry manure and inorganic fertilisers), and control (nil inputs) in a fully randomised and replicated experiment with 4 blocks.
It was evident at the start of the experiment (i.e., crop 1), that compared to the conventional farmers practice treatment, the full compost treatment (120 dry t/ha) had produced significantly (P0.25 mm.
This study demonstrated that a 125 dry t/ha compost application rejuvenated soil quality and maintained many soil quality benefits over the five crops, despite the high tillage associated with rotary hoe use in this system.

I International Symposium on Organic Matter Management and Compost Use in Horticulture

S.M. Eldridge, K.Y. Chan, N.J. Donovan, F. Saleh, D. Fahey, I. Meszaros, L. Muirhead, I. Barchia

recycled organics, poultry manure, carbon, eCEC, cations, phosphorus, aggregate stability

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1018.4