Journal
WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume 66, Issue 9, Pages 1864-1870Publisher
IWA PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.2166/wst.2012.389
Keywords
digestate; earthworm; organic farming; slurry
Funding
- UK Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme
- Social and Economic Research Council (SERC)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
As organic farming prohibits the use of synthetic fertilisers, animal slurries and manures must be used. Digestate offers an alternative to these and this study reports on three experiments conducted to determine its usability in terms of: (1) the effect on earthworm populations, (2) its fertilising effects on Italian Ryegrass and wild Creeping Thistle, and (3) the suppression effects digestate has on weed emergence. The results for digestate application to field plots were intermediate between slurry and no treatment for earthworm attraction and wild thistle suppression. In glasshouse trials it led to increased ryegrass growth compared with undigested slurry. Analysis showed that the digestate had improved nitrogen availability, leading to increased plant growth, but a reduced organic matter content compared with the slurry, leading to a positive though less beneficial impact on the earthworms. Digestate therefore provides a suitable fertiliser for organic farming. This suitability could be improved by drying or separation to increase the OM content making its properties closer to those of slurry whilst still retaining the higher content of plant available nitrogen.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available