TITLE:
Potential of Wood Ash as a Fertilizer in BRS Piatã Grass Cultivation in the Brazilian Cerrado Soil
AUTHORS:
Edna Maria Bonfim-Silva, Marcel Thomas Job Pereira, Tonny José Araújo Da Silva, William Fenner
KEYWORDS:
Solid Residue in Agriculture, Tropical Grass, Brachiaria brizantha, Alternative Fertilizer
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.8 No.10,
September
4,
2017
ABSTRACT: Utilizing wood ash as a fertilizer in agriculture is
a viable alternative to the soil nutrients
absorbed by the crops. The aim of this study was to assess the phytometric
and productive features of Brachiaria
brizantha (cv. BRS Piatã) fertilized with wood ash in
the Brazilian Cerrado. The experiment was performed in a greenhouse, adopting a
completely randomized design, and applying five rates of wood ash (0, 5, 10, 15
and 20 g·dm-3) with five replicates. The shoot plant
parts were subjected to three successive cuts 30-day intervals each. The
results were submitted to the analysis of variance and regression analysis at
5% probability. The wood ash rates between 13 to 17 g·dm-3 clearly produced the best results for plant height (102.24, 84.42 and 63.27
cm), leaf/stem ratio (1.61, 1, 78 and 1.94), and chlorophyll index (46.66,
41.93 and 38.39), respectively, during the first, second and third evaluations.
A 94% increase in the shoot dry mass (2nd and 3rd evaluations) and root parts was noted for the wood ash rate of 20 g·dm-3,
compared with the treatment involving wood ash fertilization. Wood ash affects
the phytometric features, increases the chlorophyll concentration and thus the
BRS Piatã grass production in the Oxisol of the Brazilian Cerrado.