Effects of Brewery waste sludge on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) productivity and soil fertility

Abstract

This field experiment was conducted during the 2013/2014 main cropping season at Haramaya University Raaree Research farm. The objective of the experiment was to elucidate the effect of brewery waste sludge on the growth, yield and yield-related traits of the crop. The treatments consisted of seven levels Brewery sludge (0.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 10.0 and 12.0 t ha−1) and recommended rate of NP mineral fertilizer of N (92 kg N ha−1) and P (92 kg P2O5 ha−1). The experiment was laid out as a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. The results of the experiment revealed that the application brewery sludge (BS) influenced total dry weight, unmarketable tuber yield, percentage of small-sized tubers, and percentage of medium-sized tubers. The main effects of seed tuber planting depth significantly influenced shoot fresh weight, total dry weight, average tuber number produced per hill, unmarketable tuber yield, total tuber yield, marketable tuber yield, mean tuber weight, and percentage of small-sized tubers produced. Increasing the application level of BS generally enhanced the aforementioned parameters. However, for most parameters, the highest values were obtained already at the brewery sludge rate of 10 t ha−1. In conclusion, the optimum total and marketable tuber yields of 28.24 t ha−1 and 25.03 t ha−1 were obtained in response to brewery sludge rate of 10 t ha−1.

Keywords

• potato
• heavy metals
• soil contaminations