Using of Charcoal to Improve Soil Fertility for Sweet Waxy Corn Production
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Abstract
Charcoal is organic matter which is plant nutrition source and C storage in the soil. This experiment studied effect of charcoal application on soil fertility growth and yield of sweet corn variety Dokkoon 49 (KJ 49). They included 4 treatments: 1) soil alone, 2) soil+charcoal, 3) soil+N fertilizer and 4) soil+charcoal+N fertilizer. The results showed that soil moisture contents under soil+charcoal and soil+charcoal+N fertilizer treatments were higher than soil+N fertilizer and soil alone treatments. In soil chemical properties after sweet corn harvest, pH, E.C., soil organic matter and total N were not significantly different. However, total N tended to increase although the amounts of soil organic matter did not change, this probably due to short-term experiment (3 months). The change of soil organic matter by charcoal application must be long-term effects. At 60 day after planting, dry weight and N content were not significantly different between treatments. At final harvest, however, ear fresh weights were significantly different among treatments at 99% confidence in which soil+charcoal treatment gave the highest yield (383 g/stem) and the lowest was in soil+N fertilizer treatment (148 g/stem). In addition, stem and cob dry weight were not significantly different among treatments. Soil + charcoal treatment gave the highest stem (530 g/stem) and cob dry weight (0.21 g/stem). Soil+charcoal+N fertilizer treatment had ear yield (160 g/stem) lower than soil+charcoal treatment, this might due to N fertilizer added was absorbed by charcoal and may be released for the next crop. However, the amount of charcoal used in this experiment was rather high rate (5% of soil dry weight). The next study should focus on long-term impact and reduce the rate of charcoal application in the soil.
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