use of shrimp sludge as a soil amendment for tomatoes
DESCRIPTION
Use of Shrimp Sludge as a Soil Amendment for Tomatoes. Chad King, Kevin Fitzsimmons, Dennis McIntosh Environmental Research Lab University of Arizona. Purpose. Determine feasibility of use of shrimp sludge from low salinity inland shrimp culture as a soil amendment. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Use of Shrimp Sludge as a Soil Amendment for Tomatoes
Chad King, Kevin Fitzsimmons, Dennis McIntosh
Environmental Research LabUniversity of Arizona
Purpose
• Determine feasibility of use of shrimp sludge from low salinity inland shrimp culture as a soil amendment.
• Apply sludge at disposal rates, not to meet plant requirements.
• Provide a use or disposal for a current waste product
• Reduce the potential for farm erosion, nutrient leaching/loss
Research Design• Collected and dried fresh sludge from a shrimp farm
in western Arizona, USA • Treatments of 5, 10 and 20% sludge application by
volume, 402, 805 and 1,610 g/plant• Mechanically mixed shrimp sludge and potting soil
mix (concrete sand, mulch, vermiculite)• Randomly transplanted and arranged 28 ‘Roma’
tomato starts in a greenhouse, one plant per pot• Each plant received 4 L of water daily, over four
applications by drip irrigation• Response measured in mass of tomatoes produced
Statistical Analysis
• One-way ANOVA of total mean mass of tomatoes per plant for each treatment
Shrimp Sludge Characteristics
Sample Total N
% dry matter
Total PO4-P
% dry matter
Total K
% dry matter
NO3-N
g/g
Olsen P
g/g
Soluble K
g/g
EC
dS/m
1 0.13 0.10 0.23 1497.4 22.60 27.3
2 0.48 0.21 0.20 4.36 73.50 53.6 8.5
Total N, PO4-P and K show total plant macronutrients
NO3-N, Olsen P and soluble K show plant available nutrients
EC provides a measurement of soil salinity
Results
Tomato Production
Treatment Tomato Mass (g/plant)
SEM
0% (Control) 39.2a 11.54
5%402 g/plant
65.1a 11.14
10%805 g/plant
141.1b 20.73
20%1,620 g/plant
113.6b 19.9
Different superscripts indicate a significant difference, p<0.05
Conclusions
• Applications of 10% and 20% increased plant production
• Suggests land application will benefit crop production while providing a disposal mechanism
• Large, field scale application experiment suggested to verify results
• Soil salinity must also be monitored, given high evaporation rates
• Sludge is highly variable, depending on pond management