• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.565-574
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• 2011

The development of satisfactory alternatives for supplying the nutrients needed by crops could decrease the problems associated with conventional NPK chemical fertilizers. In this study, the effects of bacterial and fungal effective microorganisms (EM) on the growth of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa) were evaluated. This investigation was carried out parrallel with conventional NPK chemical fertilizer and a commercial sold microbial fertilizer to compare between each of their effect. Sterile water and molasses were served as controls. Azotobacter chroococcum effect also was studied either alone or in combination with the effective microorganisms on the growth parameters. In contrast to the bacterial EM, the fungal EM alone without A. chroococcum had a more stimulating effect than fungal EM combined with A. chroococcum. Results showed that seedling inoculation significantly enhanced B. rapa growth. Shoot dry and fresh weight, and leaf length and width significantly were increased by both bacterial and fungal inoculation. The results indicated that the NPK chemical fertilizer deteriorates the microflora inhabiting the soil, while the effective microorganisms either fungal or bacterial ones increased the microbial density significantly. This study implies that both of fungal and bacterial EM are effective for the improvement of the Chinese cabbage growth and enhance the microorganisms in soil. The results showed antagonism occurred between A. chroococcum and each of Penicillium sp and Trichoderma sp in both agar and plant assays. The data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and Dunnett test.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.547-553
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• 2017

Treatment of food waste is becoming a big issue due to their significant quantities. Composting could be an effective alternative for food waste management which could be used as soil conditioner or fertilizer with little concerns about heavy metals and pathogens. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effect of food waste on Chinese cabbage growth and soil properties. 9 different treatments (two livestock manures, two food wastes, two livestock manures + chemical fertilizer, two food wastes + chemical fertilizer, and control) were applied to Chinese cabbage. All treatments were carried out in 3 replicates. We measured leaf length, leaf width, fresh weight, dry weight, and leaf greenness of Chinese cabbage. Treatment of one of food waste composts significantly increased leaf length and leaf width of Chinese cabbage by 28.6, 26.6, 67.7, and 59.9%, respectively, in comparison to those of control, while no significant differences for leaf greenness were shown. Application of food waste compost resulted in significant increase of EC, available $P_2O_5$, CEC, organic matter, and exchangeable cations. However, further researches are needed to reduce NaCl content of food waste.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.518-524
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• 2014

Heavy metal pollution in agricultural field near at the abandoned metal mines has been a critical issue in Korea. In particular, bioaccumulation in plants can have detrimental effect on human health. Main objective of this research was to examine arsenic (As) concentration in soil with varied extraction methods and to determine bioaccumulation and biological transfer factor in different crops. Results showed that bioaccumulation ratio of As for total contents in soil was ordered leafy and stem vegetables (1.19%) > fruit bearing vegetables (0.79%) > pulses (0.40%) > root vegetables (0.36%) with different crop species. Among 6 different extraction methods, all of extraction methods showed high correlation ($R^2=0.87-0.97$) except DTPA ($R^2=0.25$) when comparing As concentration in soil extracted with different extractants and As concentration in each crops. Calculated biological transfer factor was ranged 0.002-0.018 depending on crop species. Overall, concentration of As in crops can be varied and best management practice for minimizing bioaccumulation of As should be considered depending on crop species.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2007

Volatilization of ammonia from N fertilizer is the major mechanism of N losses that occur naturally in all soils and is influenced by numerous soils, environmental and N fertilizer management factors. Vegetables are often damaged by $NH_3$ gas volatilized from the high rates of N fertilizer. We determined the rate of $NH_3$ volatilization from urea applied to surface of the alluvial soil (coarse silty, mixed, mesic family of Dystric Fluventic Eutrochrepts, Ihyeon series) as affected by fertilizer management factors such as rate of urea application, irrigation schedule and temperature. The $NH_3$ volatilization was triggered about 3 d after urea application and reached at maximum level in general within 15 days. Cumulative amounts of 3.0, 4.4, and 8.0 kg of $NH_3$ N after 17 d were volatilized at application rates of 200, 400, and $600kg\;N\;ha^{-1}$, respectively, which were equivalent to the N losses of 15.0, 10.9, and 13.0% of N applied. Masses of N volatilization were 5, 21, 75 and $87kg\;NH_3\;N\;ha^{-1}$ at 5, 8, 22, and 28, respectively. Total amounts of 21.3, 21.2, and $16.6kg\;N\;ha^{-1}$ were volatilized at control, 5 and 10 mm water irrigation before fertilization, respectively. However, those at 5 mm irrigation after fertilization were only $10.44kg\;N\;ha^{-1}$. Results showed that urea loss can be avoided by incorporating with the recommended level, applying when temperatures are low or irrigating immediately to carry the urea into soil.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.565-571
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• 2010

One of the disadvantages of flooding treatment for desalting from soils is that salts move to deep soils after flooding and at the end reaccumulate at the soil surface through capillary movements. This study was carried out to remove salts from soils in plastic film houses by a modified flooding method, drainage after flooding. The method successfully removed salts at the soil surface and salts did not move to the deep soil. Drained water containing N, P and K could be reused as fertilizer. By applying small amount of MgO, turbidity of water flooded decreased in 30 min by 95%. Struvite should be formed since the flooded water contain ammonia and phosphorous and their concentrations were decreased. This could be utilized as fertilizer which provides a slow-release source of phosphorus, magnesium and nitrogen that features low inherent water solubility.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.610-617
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• 2015

The impact of 1 pound of nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) on warming the atmosphere is almost 310 times that of 1 pound of carbon dioxide. Agricultural soil management is the largest source of $N_2O$ emissions, accounting for about 73% of total $N_2O$ emissions. This study was conducted to evaluate the nitrous oxide emission in the cultivation of soybean during the first year of No-tillage (NT) and Conventional-tillage (CT) practices, under the various conditions such as different kinds of fertilizers, soil temperature, and moisture level. In the experiment, we set CT and NT treatments into 4 different groups - control treatments (no fertilization), green manure treatments, chemical fertilizer treatments and organic manure treatments. In the case of chemical fertilizer treatments, $N_2O$ emission of NT treatment was 7.78 to 22.59% lower than CT treatment. In organic manure treatment, $N_2O$ emission of NT treatment was 6.62% higher than CT treatment in August. But In July and September, $N_2O$ emission of NT treatment was 9.50% 28.38% lower than CT treatment, respectively. Soil temperature was correlated with $N_2O$ emission positively. In the future, continued long-term research on influence of various environmental factors on the generation of $N_2O$ and the economic value of no-till farming is required.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.146-152
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• 2015

Heavy metal pollution has been a critical problem in agricultural field near at the abandoned metal mines and chemical amendments are applied for remediation purpose. However, biological activity can be changed depending on chemical amendments affecting crop productivity. Main purpose of this research was to evaluate biological parameters after applying chemical amendments in heavy metal polluted agricultural field. Result showed that soil respiration (SR) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) were changed after chemical amendments were applied. Among three different amendments, lime stone (LS), steel slag (SS), and acid mine drainage sludge(AMDS), AMDS had an effect to increase SR in paddy soil. Comparing to control ($93.98-170.33mg\;kg^{-1}day^{-1}$), average of 30% increased SR was observed. In terms of MBC, SS had an increased effect in paddy soil. However, no significant difference of SR and MBC was observed in upland soil after chemical amendment application. Overall, SR can be used as an indicator of heavy metal remediation in paddy soil.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.229-234
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• 2013

Coal ash can be added to agricultural soils to increase the chemical properties of soil such as pH, cation exchange capacity and nutrient availability of - B, Ca, Mo etc-. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of fly ash as a soil amendment in paddy soils. Selected fly ash was mixed with bentonite and calcium hydroxide at the ratio of 80:15:5 (w/w) and manufactured as a pellet type at the size of 10 mm. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of fly ash fertilizer on the soil quality and crop growth compare to the control (no fertilizer) and, - traditional fertilizer. Results showed that soil pH and organic matter in paddy soils after applying the manufactured fly ash fertilizer were not increased compared to the other two treatments. However, the concentration of available phosphate and silicate in paddy soils were higher than those of the control and traditional fertilization. With regard to crop growth, no significant difference was observed between three different treatments. However, the content of protein in the rice grain cultivated with the fly ash fertilizer was higher than in the rice cultivated by other two treatments. Overall, fly ash fertilizer could increase the concentration of available silicate and phosphate in the paddy soil and improve the rice quality. In conclusion, fly ash can be utilized in agricultural soils as soil amendment, especially in the rice paddy soil.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.27
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• pp.68-79
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• 1984

An increased population and rapidly expanding industrial development have led to enormous amounts of various domestic and industrial wastes. The proper disposal of ever-increasing wastes is a growing global problem. Land treatment is one of the rational approaches that are environmentally safe and economically practical. It has long been practised in many sites. Recycling of industrial wastes on agricultural land can provide better possible means for maintaining environmental quality and utilizing waste-resources. Even though industrial wastes are beneficial as soil amendment and fertilizer, they have some limitation on land application because of wide variability as well as physicochemical problem in their composition. A direct application of solid and liquid wastes on land is being practised in Korea and some experimental results are presented. The direct application of fermentation waste on rice resulted in a 6 percent yield increase. Another organic residue from glutamic acid fermentation is widely used not only as a direct application as a liquid fertilizer but also for a raw material of organic compound fertilizer. These wastes are much promising as sources of plant nutrients, since they have large amounts of nutrients, especially nitrogen with few toxic metals. On the other hand, fertilizers developed from inorganic industrial wastes include calcium silicate, calcium sulfate and ammonium sulfate. The calcium silicate fertilizer simply produced from slag, by-product of iron and steel manufacturing plant is one of the most successful example of the conversion of wastes to fertilizer and slag production capacity totals to over three million MT/year. About 200,000 MT of calcium silicate fertilizer is currently applied in the paddy rice every year. Calcium sulfate, a waste from the wet phosphoric acid process is to some extent used as a filler of compound fertilizers but quite large quantites are directly applied for the reclamation of tidal flat.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1065-1072
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• 2012

Crop productivity decreases globally as a result of salinization. However, salinity impact on greenhouse-grown crops is much higher than on field-grown crops due to the overall concentrations of nutrients in greenhouse soils. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the short-term changes in growth, photosynthesis, and metabolites of tomato plants grown in greenhouse under heavily input of fertilizers evaluated by microbial activity and chemical properties of soils. The soils (< 3, 3.01~6, 6.01~10 and > 10.01 dS $m^{-1}$) from farmer's greenhouse fields having different fertilization practices were used. Results showed that the salt-accumulated soil affected adversely the growth of tomato plants. Tomato plants were seldom to complete their growth against > 10.0 dS $m^{-1}$ level of EC. The assimilation rate of $CO_2$ from the upper fully expanded leaves of tomato plants is reduced under increasing soil EC levels at 14 days, however; it was the highest in moderate or high EC-subjected (3.0 ~ 10.0 dS $m^{-1}$) at 28 days. In our experiment, soluble sugars and starch were sensitive markers for salt stress and thus might assume the status of crops against various salt conditions. Taken together, tomato plants found to have tolerance against moderate soil EC stress. Various EC levels (< 3.0 ~ 10.0 dS $m^{-1}$) led to a slight decrease in organic matter (OM) contents in soils at 28 days. Salinity stress led to higher microbial activity in soils, followed by a decomposition of OM in soils as indicated by the changes in soil chemical properties.