2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Food demand is increasing at an alarming rate and much of future production systems will depend on the use of fertilizers in organic amendments. Grower and consumer concern about safe food products has also increased over the past several years and is expected to continue. Thirty plots divided into three replicates in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five soil amendments were used to study their impact on field grown tomato. The five soil amendments were: i) sewage sludge mixed with native soil, ii) yard waste compost mixed with native soil, iii) chicken manure mixed with native soil, iv) horse manure mixed with native soil, and v) no-mulch (unamended soil) used for comparison purposes. Each of the five treatments was also mixed with 1% biochar to make a total of 10 treatments. Soil amendments were applied at 5% nitrogen acre^-1 on dry weight basis. After three harvests, Results revealed that yields obtained from Chicken Manure (CM) and CM mixed with biochar were highest whereas, yields obtained from yard waste compost was lowest compared to other soil treatments. Accordingly, recycling CM for use as a low-cost fertilizer resulted in a positive effect on the growth and yield of tomato. Additional research is in progress to increase and certify these results.