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Figure 1: Effect of soil amender and level of effluent on growth of water spinach after 28 days |
Figure 2: Effect of soil amender and level of effluent on soil pH |
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Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Livestock and Soils |
The hypothesis was tested in the present study was that there would be a synergistic response in growth of water spinach when biodigester effluent with staggered application was combined with biochar derived from rice husk in an updraft TLUD stove. The experiment was carried out at the research centre of Champasack University, Lao PDR to measure changes in soil fertility as a function of the growth of water spinach plants over a 28 day period following seeding. A completely randomized design was used with 3 replications of the treatments applied to samples of soil held in fifteen litre capacity plastic baskets. Fifteen treatments were compared in a 3*5 factorial arrangement. The factors were: soil amender (biochar or charcoal or none) at 40 tonnes/ha and level of effluent (0, 25, 50, 75 or 100 kg N/ha). Effluent was applied every 7 days interval (total 4 times) and the application was staggered from 10, 20, 30 and 40% respectively.
The staggered application of biodigester effluent was significantly affected to the green biomass of the water spinach linearly with increasing amount of effluent N applied at 100 kg N/ha. Application of biochar had significantly effect on soil pH and there was no apparent effect on level of effluent on soil pH. Both soil amenders (biochar and charcoal) gave similar improvements in water holding capacity of between 25 and 38%.
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Figure 1: Effect of soil amender and level of effluent on growth of water spinach after 28 days |
Figure 2: Effect of soil amender and level of effluent on soil pH |
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Figure 3: Effect of soil amender and level of effluent on soil water holding capacity |
