Material and Methods

2.2.1 Treatments and Experimental Design

Two field experiments were conducted on different soil types at the agricultural experimental stations of the University of Rostock (loamy sand) and at the Institute of Organic Farming in Trenthorst (sandy loam). The same soil types were also used for the pot experiments in Rostock; in 2007 the experiments were established on loamy sand and in 2008 they were established on sandy loam (Table 2.2).

The rape meal ash (RMA) was produced at the University of Rostock in a fluidized bed combustion at 860°C. The rye straw ash (SA) was produced via grate firing at 750°C and was supplied by the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering in Potsdam-Bornim (Germany). The rye cereal ash (CA) was manu­factured at the Agricultural Technical School of Tulln (Austria) also via grate firing at 650-850°C. The fertilization treatments in the field and pot experiments were established in respect of the nutrient contents of the ashes (Table 2.3). Heavy metal contents are given in Table 2.4.

Table 2.2 Soil characteristics at the beginning of the field and pot experiments

Type of soil

pH

OM

Pw

Pdl

Pox

PSC

DPS

CaCl2

(%)

(mg kg

-1)

(mmol kg 1)

(%)

Field experiments

Rostock (0-30 cm)

Loamy sand

5.70

1.9

16.9

67.2

15.9

29.3

54.0

Trenthorst (0-30 cm)

Sandy loam

6.36

3.5

23.8

81.9

17.3

42.1

41.1

Pot experiments

2007

Loamy sand

5.69

2.4

10.6

38.9

11.9

30.5

39.1

2008

Sandy loam

6.17

3.6

7.6

39.3

9.9

37.4

26.6

OM organic dry matter, Pw water-soluble P, Pdl double-lactate-soluble P, Pox oxalate-soluble P, PSC P sorption capacity, DPS degree of P saturation

Table 2.3 Treatments, nutrient concentrations of the ashes and nutrient supply, field and pot experiments

Fertilization

Nutrient

Field experiments

Pot experiments (6 kg soil per pot)

treatments

concentrations

Fertilizer

Nutrient supply

Fertilizer

Nutrient supply

(%)

application

(kg ha

1) for2years

application

(g pot

-1)

P

K

Mg

rates (kg ha-1) for 2 years

P

K

Mg

rates (g pot-1)

P

K

Mg

CON

Phosphorus

20.2

1.00

0.20

(TSP)

RMA

8.0

7.3

5.5

650

51.7

47.5

35.4

2.50

0.20

0.18

0.14

SA

1.0

5.3

1.0

850

8.8

44.8

8.2

9.80

0.10

0.52

0.10

CA

10.5

10.8

3.3

500

52.4

54.2

16.7

1.90

0.20

0.21

0.06

Potassium

52.4

1.00

0.52

(KCl)

CON control; TSP triple superphosphate; RMA rape meal ash; SA straw ash; CA cereal ash

Biomass ash

pH

Cd

Cr

Cu

Hg

Ni

Pb

Zn

RMA

12.6

0.5

227.9

77.1

0.02

273.6

11.9

348.9

SA

11.1

0.1

4.7

24.5

0.02

3.7

<1.5

80.9

CA

12.9

1.3

13.7

170.9

0.04

13.1

2.6

750.5

RMA rape meal ash; SA straw ash; CA cereal ash

Table 2.5 Cultivated crops in the experiments in 2007 and 2008 Year Field experiments Pot experiments

Rostock Trenthorst Main crops Catch crops

2007 Summer barley Summer wheat Maize, blue lupin, Oil radish, phacelia,

2008 Maize Blue lupin summer barley, Italian ryegrass,

oilseed rape buckwheat

In the 2-year field experiments with different crop plants (see Table 2.5) the three ashes were applied once at the beginning of the experiments and incorporated into the top soil. Nitrogen was given in all treatments according to good fertilization practice.

In the pot experiments six different fertilization treatments were established. Besides the ash treatments, other treatments included triple superphosphate (TSP) as a highly soluble P source, potassium chloride (KCl) as a highly soluble potas­sium source, and a control (CON) without P and potassium. The ashes/fertilizers were applied on the soil surface and mixed into the upper 5 cm of soil. For nitrogen supply, 1.4 g NH4NO3 per pot was given. Mitscherlich pots with 6 kg soil each were used for crop cultivation.

Eight different crops were investigated in the pot experiments. Depending on the favourable growing time of cultivated main crops and catch crops, two experiments per year were established (Table 2.5). The main crops were seeded in April and the catch crops were seeded in August. The crop growing period in the pot experiments was about 7-10 weeks until the time of maximum biomass. In field and pot experiments all treatments were replicated four times.