The combined effect of nitrogen and biochar amendments on the yield and glucosinolate contents of the Chinese cabbage

Abstract

Nitrogen plays an important role in plant growth as an essential nutrient. When crops are grown on biochar applied soil, their growth be positive affected. Biochar has been announced as a soil amendment to improve nitrogen (N) use efficiency. The present study aimed to investigate the combined effect of nitrogen fertilizer and biochar amendment on the growth of Chinese cabbage including its glucosinolates (GSLs) functional compounds. Acidic (AB), neutral (NB) and basic (BB) biochars produced at 330 °C, 400 °C and at 600 °C, respectively were employed in the study with each of them applied to the soil at a rate of 1% (w/w). N fertilizer in form of urea was split applied to the soil at three different rates of 160, 320, 640 kg ha−1. The Chinese cabbage yield was highest in the 320 kg ha−1 nitrogen amendment and all the biochar amendments decreased yield in comparison to the 320 kg ha−1 nitrogen amendment. The Chinese cabbage yield in the biochar amended soils increased with increasing amount of nitrogen applied to the soil. The GSLs content was highest in the Chinese cabbage grown on the 320 kg ha−1 N amendment in all the treatments. Except, BB, biochar amendments generally produced Chinese cabbage with higher GSLs content than the urea only amendment.

Keywords

• Biochar
• Chinese cabbage
• Glucosinolate
• HPLC analysis
• Nitrogen fertilizer