Phosphogypsum Organic, a Byproduct from Rare-Earth Metals Processing, Improves Plant and Soil

Phosphogypsum organic (PG organic) is a soil conditioner, derived from residues, water leach purification (WLP) and neutralisation underflow (NUF) from rare-earth metals processing in combination with composted organic material. There was no report available with regards to the effectiveness of this byproduct for crops improvement in a sandy soil texture. Therefore, a field trial involving a multi-crop was conducted by the addition of PG organic on a sandy texture soil for 23-month period. Guinea grass or guinea grass intercropping with teak wood trees, corn and kenaf showed an improvement in cumulative fresh yield in plot treated with PG organic either with a half- or full-fertilizer recommended rate for the respective crop as compared to control. The same trend was also observed in teak wood trees in hole planting systems and pandan coconut seedlings in the polybags. Application of PG organic in each season showed a consistently higher cumulative fresh yield or yield for certain crop types due to soil ability to maintain the soil pH buffering capacity (pH 5.8–6.0). Therefore, the application of PG organic as soil conditioner promotes plant growth and development due to the improvement of soil condition by creating suitable ecosystem for nutrients absorption by roots.

Utilization of bio-organo mineral as a soil ameliorant for hard crops

The research objective was to make a formula for economical complex soil conditioner of bio-organo mineral for tea, coffee and cacao plantations. The soil conditioner (SC) formula for such plantations was made by mixing the urea, phosphate, leucite and kieserite with the ratio of 25:7:12:3. The experiments at Block B5 showed the amount of harvested dormant leaves was 3.37 kg/100 m2 while the control yielded 2.29 kg/100 m2. There is a difference around 1.08 kg/100 m2 or 47%. The amount of Peko shoots was 19.82 g/100 m2 when using the soil conditioner while the control had 14.89 g/100 m2 performing the difference 33% while at Block A10, the amount of harvested dormant shoot was 3.53 kg/100 m2. There is a difference around 3.29 kg/100m2 or 7%. The amount of Peko shoot was 18.25 g/100 m2 while the control acquiesced 15,05 g/100m2 – the difference of both was 21%. The Robusta grew from 25.4 cm to 28.5 cm when using the BIOM-SC. but the plant height is only from 24.4 cm to 26.8 when using NPK fertilizer.

Effects of dose of pyrophyllite on yield and quality of the cabbage

In this study was researched the influence of the pyrophyllite as a nutrient, bio-stabilizer, soil conditioner, as the adsorbent in different combinations and correlated standard quantitative relations with mineral fertilizers (NPK 15 : 15 : 15), on the yield and nutritional value of Bravo cabbage (Brassica oleraceae var. capitata). Within the examined factor of fertilization treatment, the following variances were represented: a1 – 800 kg ha–1 NPK 15 : 15 : 15 (control plot), a2 – 800 kg ha–1 NPK 15 : 15 : 15 + 2200 kg ha–1 pyrophyllite, a3 – 800 kg ha–1 NPK 15 : 15 : 15 + 1700 kg ha–1 of pyrophyllite, a4 – 800 kg ha–1 NPK 15 : 15 : 15 + 1200 kg ha–1 of pyrophyllite, a5 – 800 kg ha–1 NPK 15 : 15 : 15 + 700 kg ha–1 of pyrophyllite. The purpose of this research was to determine the extent to which the components of the yield and nutritional quality of cabbage depend on the different applied doses of pyrophyllite. The results indicate the fact that the treatments with the application of higher participation of pyrophyllite had a positive effect on the weight and quality of the cabbage head in relation to the control variance.