https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2022.2045

Does the timing of short-term biowaste compost application affect crop growth and potential nitrate leaching? The case studies of processing tomato and cauliflower under field conditions

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2022)
Submitted: 22 January 2022
Accepted: 3 June 2022
Published: 29 June 2022
Nitrogen fertilisation, sustainable agriculture, vegetables, Mediterranean environment, soil organic matter, Solanum lycopersicum L, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.
Abstract Views: 620
PDF: 318
HTML: 20
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

  • Michela Farneselli • michela.farneselli@unipg.it Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
  • Euro Pannacci Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
  • Francesco Tei Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.

The feasibility of municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) as a substitute for mineral nitrogen (N) fertiliser was tested for a spring-summer (i.e., processing tomato) and an autumn-winter (i.e., cauliflower) vegetable crop grown in Mediterranean open field conditions. Two different doses (10 and 20 t dm C ha–1) and two distribution timings for each dose (i.e., early application at about nine months before processing tomato transplanting and five months before cauliflower transplanting: C10_early and C20_early; late application at about one month before processing tomato and cauliflower transplanting: C10_late and C20_late) were compared in a two-year field experiment. An unfertilised control and a 100% mineral N fertilisation (MIN, 200 kg N ha–1 for processing tomato and 150 kg N ha–1 for cauliflower) were added to the experiment. The application of MSWC significantly reduced the aboveground DM accumulation compared to the MIN in both crops, and it was inadequate to ensure a high yield for spring-summer and autumn-winter vegetables. However, the timing of compost application seems to play an essential role in reducing the reduction of crop growth due to compost application. In both tomato and cauliflower, when the MSWC was applied a few months earlier than the transplanting (i.e., in the previous summer in tomato and the previous spring in cauliflower), the DM and yield reduction was less apparent than in soil where compost was applied immediately before transplanting. Despite the lowest N-uptake associated with the MSWC application, the N-NO3 concentration in the soil solution was reduced by MSWC. In addition to the amendment effect, compost use may positively impact lowering N leaching risks in the groundwater. Combining the use of MSWC applied early before the crop season with mineral N fertiliser, it is possible to gain high yield, increase soil organic carbon and reduce groundwater contamination risk both in spring-summer and autumn-winter vegetable crops.

Highlights
- Biowaste compost decreased the aboveground biomass accumulation and yield in processing tomato and cauliflower.
- Biowaste compost alone did not meet the N requirement in processing tomato and cauliflower.
- Biowaste compost distribution in the summer before the processing tomato growing season alleviated its depressive effect in reducing DM and yield.
- Biowaste compost distribution in the spring before the cauliflower growing season alleviated its depressive effect in reducing DM and yield.
- Biowaste compost decreased the N-NO3 concentration in soil solution compared to mineral fertilisation with a positive effect in reducing N leaching risks in the groundwater.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Allen RG, Pereira LS, Raes D, Smith M, 1998. Crop evapotranspiration - Guidelines for computing crop water requirements - FAO Irrigation and drainage paper 56. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.
Antoniadis V, 2013. Mineralization of organic-amendment-derived nitrogen in two Mediterranean soils with different organic matter contents. Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. 44:2788-95, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2013.815199
Bruulsema T, 2018. Managing nutrients to mitigate soil pollution. Environ. Pollut. 243:1602-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.09.132
Brunetti G, Traversa A, De Mastro F, Cocozza C, 2019. Short-term effects of synergistic inorganic and organic fertilization on soil properties and yield and quality of plum tomato. Sci. Hortic. 252:342-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2019.04.002
Cameira MR, Mota M, 2017. Nitrogen related diffuse pollution from horticulture production - mitigation practices and assessment strategies. Horticulturae 3:25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae3010025
Chaparro J, Badri D, Vivanco J, 2014. Rhizosphere microbiome assemblage is affected by plant development. ISME J. 8:790-803. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.196
De Rosa D, Basso B, Rowlings DW, Scheer C, Biala J, Grace PR, 2017. Can Organic Amendments Support Sustainable Vegetable Production? Agron. J. 109:1856-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2016.12.0739
Diacono M and Montemurro F, 2010. Long-term effects of organic amendments on soil fertility. A review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 30:401-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/agro/2009040
EC (European Commission), 2015. Closing the Loop-An. EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy; COM (2015) 614 Final; European Commission: Brussels, Belgium.
EC (European Commission), 2018. A Sustainable Bioeconomy for Europe: Strengthening the Connection between Economy, Society and the Environment. Updated Bioeconomy Strategy; Directorate-General for Research and Innovation Unit F-Bioeconomy: Brussels, Belgium.
EC (European Commission), 2020. Database. Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database Accessed: 20 September 2021.
European Compost Network, 2010. Sustainable compost application in agriculture. ECN Info Paper, 02/2010.
Farneselli M, Benincasa P, Tosti G, Simonne E, Guiducci M, Tei F, 2015. High fertigation frequency improves nitrogen uptake and crop performance in processing tomato grown with high nitrogen and water supply, Agric. Water Manage. 154:52-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.03.002
Farneselli M, Tosti G, Onofri A, Benincasa P, Guiducci M, Pannacci E, Tei F, 2018. Effects of N sources and management strategies on crop growth, yield, and potential N leaching in processing tomato. Eur. J. Agron. 98:46-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2018.04.006
Farneselli M, Benincasa P, Tosti G, Guiducci M, Tei F, 2020. Combining green manuring and fertigation maximizes tomato crop yield and minimizes nitrogen losses. Agronomy 10:977. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10070977
Gabriel JL, Munoz-Carpena R, Quemada M, 2012. The role of cover crops in irrigated systems: water balance, nitrate leaching and soil mineral nitrogen accumulation. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 155:50-61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2012.03.021
Garcia C, Hernandez T, Coll MD, Ondoño S, 2017. Organic amendments for soil restoration in arid and semiarid areas: a review. AIMS Environ. Sci. 4:640-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3934/environsci.2017.5.640
Giannakis GV, Kourgialas NN, Paranychianakis NV, Nikolaidis NP, Kalogerakis N, 2014. Effects of municipal solid waste compost on soil properties and vegetables growth. Compost Sci. Util. 22:116-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1065657X.2014.899938
Hargreaves JC, Adl MS, Warman PR, 2008. A review of the use of composted municipal solid waste in agriculture, Agr. Ecosyst. Environ 123:1-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2007.07.004
Hernández T, Chocano C, Moreno JL, García C, 2014. Towards a more sustainable fertilization: Combined use of compost and inorganic fertilization for tomato cultivation. Agr. Ecosyst. Environ. 196:178-84. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2014.07.006
Horrocks A, Curtin D, Tregurtha C, Meenken E, 2016. Municipal compost as a nutrient source for organic crop production in New Zealand. Agronomy 6:35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy6020035
Hothorn T, Bretz F, Westfall P, 2008. Simultaneous inference in general parametric models. Biom. J. 50:346-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bimj.200810425
Latini A, Giagnacovo G, Campiotti CA, Bibbiani C, Mariani S. 2021. A narrative review of the facts and perspectives on agricultural fertilization in Europe, with a Focus on Italy. Horticulturae. 7:158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7060158
Martínez-Blanco J, Muñoz P, Antón A, Rieradevall J, 2011. Assessment of tomato Mediterranean production in open-field and standard multi-tunnel greenhouse, with compost or mineral fertilizers, from an agricultural and environmental standpoint. J. Clean. Prod. 19:985-97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.11.018
Maucieri C, Barco A, Borin M, 2019. Compost as a substitute for mineral N fertilization? Effects on crops, soil and N leaching. Agronomy 9:193. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9040193
Moretti B, Bertora C, Grignani C, Lerda C, Celi L, Sacco D, 2019. Conversion from mineral fertilization to MSW compost use: Nitrogen fertilizer value in continuous maize and test on crop rotation. Sci. Tot. Environ. 705:135308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135308
Morra L, Bilotto M, Baldantoni D, Alfani A, Baiano S, 2021. A seven-year experiment in a vegetable crops sequence: effects of replacing mineral fertilizers with biowaste compost on crop productivity, soil organic carbon and nitrates concentrations. Sci. Hortic. 290:110534. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2021.110534
Morra L, Pizzolongo G, Baiano S, Pentangelo A, 2013. Comparison of olive pomace and biowaste composts in a vegetable cropping systems. Ital. J. Agron. 4:206-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2013.e25
Nicoletto C, Santagata S, Sambo P, 2013. Effects of compost application on qualitative traits in cabbage. Acta Hortic. 1005:389-95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1005.46
R Core Team, 2018. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing; R Foundation for Statistical Computing: Vienna, Austria. Available from: https://www.R.-project.org/ Accessed: 15 October 2020.
Sambo P, Nicoletto C, 2017. Fertilizers: criteria of choice for vegetable crops. In: Tei F, Nicola S, Benincasa P (Eds.), Advances in research on fertilization management of vegetable crops. Advances in Olericulture. Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53626-2_4
Santos A, Fangueiro D, Moral R, Bernal MP, 2018. Composts produced from pig slurry solids: nutrient efficiency and N-leaching risks in amended soils. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 2:8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2018.00008
Shabani H, Peyvast GA, Olfati JA, Kharrazi PR, 2011. Effect of municipal solid waste compost on yield and quality of egg-plant. Comun. Sci. 2:85-90.
Sharma B, Vaish B. Monika, Singh UK, Singh P, Singh RP, 2019. Recycling of organic wastes in agriculture: an environmental perspective. Int. J. Environ. Res. 13:409-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-019-00175-y
Tei F, De Neve S, de Haan J, Lakkenborg Kristensen H, 2020. Nitrogen management of vegetable crops. Agr. Water Manag. 240:106316. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106316
Tempesta M, Gianquinto G, Hauser M, Tagliavini M, 2019. Optimization of nitrogen nutrition of cauliflower intercropped with clover and in rotation with lettuce. Sci. Hortic. 246:734-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2018.11.020
Thompson RB, Tremblay N, Fink M, Gallardo M, Padilla FM, 2017. Tools and strategies for sustainable nitrogen fertilisation of vegetable crops. In: Tei F, Nicola S, Benincasa P (Eds.), Advances in research on fertilization management of vegetable crops. Advances in Olericulture series. Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 462:11-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53626-2_2
Quiros R, Villalba G, Munoz P, Font X, Gabarrell X, 2014. Environmental and agronomical assessment of three fertilization treatments applied in horticultural open field crops. J Clean Prod 67:147-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.12.039
Weber J, Kocowicz A, Bekier J, Jamroz E. Tyszka R, Debicka M, Parylak D, Kordas L, 2014. The effect of a sandy soil amendment with municipal solid waste (MSW) compost on nitrogen uptake efficiency by plants. Eur. J. Agron. 54:54-60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2013.11.014
Willekens K, Vandecasteele B, De Neve S, 2014. Limited short-term effect of compost and reduced tillage on N dynamics in a vegetable cropping system. Sci. Hortic. 178:79-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2014.07.035
Zaccardelli M., Pane C., Di Mola I., Ronga D., Mori M. 2021. Municipal organic waste compost replaces mineral fertilization in the horticultural cropping systems, reducing the pollution risk. Ital. J. Agron. 16:1756. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2021.1756

How to Cite

Farneselli, M., Pannacci, E., & Tei, F. (2022). Does the timing of short-term biowaste compost application affect crop growth and potential nitrate leaching? The case studies of processing tomato and cauliflower under field conditions. Italian Journal of Agronomy, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2022.2045
Copyright (c) 2022 The Author(s) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.


Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.