Physico-Chemical Evaluation of Organic Wastes Compost-Based Substrates for Eucalyptus Seedlings Growth

ABSTRACT

Eucalyptus growth was evaluated in five compost-based substrates formulated with different proportions of sewage sludge, coffee husk, peat, chicken manure, cattle manure, pine bark, sawdust, and coconut fiber, compared to two commercial substrates (CS). Organic wastes compost-based substrates (OWS) and CS were characterized regarding the available contents of macro and micronutrients, sodium (Na⁺), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and bulk density (BD). Substrate attributes and eucalyptus biomass production were submitted to principal component analysis (PCA) to detect patterns of clustering. The different proportions of organic wastes influenced the physico-chemical characteristics of OWS and, consequently, the eucalyptus biomass production. The highest biomass was observed in one of the CS that is rich in available boron (B) and calcium (Ca), less concentrated in most of the nutrients and with low EC and Na⁺ contents. The PCA allowed the verification that B availability was the attribute that explained most of the variation in eucalyptus biomass production.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural waste
• byproducts
• compost

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Bela Vista Forestry Nursery for providing the eucalyptus seedlings and the initial support for the conduction of the experiment.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from CNPq (Process 308592/2011-5), FAPEMIG (Process CAG 20008-09), and CAPES (Process 23038.008715/2012-21 AUXPE 2618-2012 and Process AUXPE 590-2014), for providing the scholarship for the first author and financial support for this study.