• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.41-48
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• 2015

Coffee consumption in Korea has been currently growing every year, and as a result, approximately 0.2 million tons of Spent Coffee Grounds (SCG) are being created every year. SCG, which is waste organic material, is often classified as food waste and an annual amount of 0.27 million ton is discarded while containing moisture and provoking serious environmental issue. Physico-chemical characteristics of SCG were analyzed in this study and medium and long-term growth experiments were conducted in order to evaluate its utilization potential. According to the experiment results, mixing SCG into the previous base material resulted in accelerated germination and growth in the mid-term compared to previous base material alone, despite slower germination or growth in early stage. Especially, it showed lower withering rate and decrease in various symptoms that are caused by nutrition shortage in case of discontinued sprinkling, etc., compared to the previous base material. Hence, while SCG has a feature of hindering early development due to its feature of waste organic material that is rich in nitrogen, its benefit for long-term growth coming its moisturizing ability and supply of organic matter was confirmed in the study. On balance, SCG is believed to be a material that can replace or complement the previous base materials.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.923-929
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the relations between soil chemical properties and Korean raspberry (Rubus coreanus Miq.) growth. Soils were collected from 54 sampling sites in 1 to 6 years old Korean raspberry cultivation fields (RCFs) at Gochang-gun, Jeollabuk-Do, Korea. In RCF with two to six years old plants, soil pH and exchangeable $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ contents were higher at the leaf-emergence time, but EC, available phosphorus content, CEC, and total nitrogen content were higher at the harvesting time; especially at the harvesting time, the content of available phosphorus in the RCF with 3~6 years old plants were at least three times higher than in the RCF with 2 years old plants. Water-soluble anions ($Cl^-$, ${NO_3}^-$, ${PO_4}^{2-}$, and ${SO_4}^{2-}$) in the RCF were also measured. The contents of ${NO_3}^-$ and ${SO_4}^{2-}$ were always higher in the RCF with older plants than in the RCF with younger plants, which were not affected by sampling time and sampling locations (rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere sites). However, soils collected from non-rhizosphere at the leaf-emergence time contained higher ${PO_4}^{2-}$ content, but $Cl^-$ content was higher in the soils collected from rhizosphere at the harvesting time. In general, soils in the RCFs contained excess amounts of inorganic nutrients such as available phosphorus and exchangeable $K^+$. Thus, optimal levels of soil properties for Korean raspberry cultivation should be reconsidered.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2010

Indoor cultivation plots for watermelon plant mostly have salt-accumulation problem because of continuous cropping especially with the heavy applications of chemical fertilizers. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate selected soil properties and watermelon growth condition as affected by the application of different farming practices in the salt-affected soils of greenhouse plots used for continuous watermelon production. Five different practice conditions in the experimental plots were applied, 1) a conventional farming practice (CFP), 2) a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) fertilizer management practice (FMP), and 3) the FMP with different amounts (5, 10, and 15 ton $ha^{-1}$)of fresh rice straw treatments (FMP-RS), for three years of study. As comparing with CFP plots, soil organic matter content gradually increased during the experimental years, whereas it decreased in the FMP only plot. Soil pH was not changed in the CFP and FMP plot, but it declined in the FMP-RS plots; however, it increased again from the third year in the FMP-RS plots with applying 10 and 15 ton $ha^{-1}$ of RS treatments. The concentrations of exchangeable cations, $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$, except $K^+$, and water-soluble anions, ${NO_3}^-$, $Cl^-$, ${SO_4}^{2-}$ and ${PO_4}^{3-}$, markedly decreased in FMP and FMP-RS plots. In particular, the application of rice straw tended to significantly decrease the ion concentrations, especially most anions, in the first year, but there was no more decrease in the second and third study years. With relation to the ion concentrations, the changes of electrical conductivity (EC) after applying the management practices showed very similar to those of the ion concentrations. In addition, incidence of withered watermelon plant after applying the management practices dramatically declined from approximately 20% in the CFP plot to 3.5% in the FMP-RS plots. Water melon fruit weight was also improved by the management practices, especially FMP-RS. Therefore, the fertilizer and/or fresh rice straw application management practices are beneficial to improve salt-affected soils and watermelon plant growth condition.