NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY IN A TOMATO PRODUCTION SYSTEM AMENDED WITH COMPOST

Municipal solid waste (MSW) compost has recently been utilized as a soil amendment in commercial vegetable production systems in Florida. The objectives of this investigation were to evaluate effects of inorganic fertilizer and compost combinations with two irrigation rates on crop growth, leaf nutritional response, fruit yield and quality and to determine the nutrient availability in the soil amended with compost and potential NO₃-N leaching losses below the root zone into the ground water on calcareous gravelly soils in south Florida.
Application of compost combinations with inorganic fertilizer significantly increased tomato total marketable yield over 18% than inorganic fertilizer.
Concentrations of total N, inorganic N, AB-DTPA extractable P, K, Zn, Fe, B and Mo were significantly higher in soil amended with compost than in non-amended soil (control). Concentrations of NO₃-N, PO₄-P and some metals in lysimeter water collected below the root zone were higher in plots amended with compost, especially at the high rate of irrigation.

VI International Symposium on Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climate: Product and Process Innovation

M. Zhang, Y.C. Li, P.J. Stoffella

Lycopersicon esculentum, soil amendments, biosolids, yard waste, nutrient leaching.

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2003.614.116