TITLE:
Chitin, Biochar, and Animal Manures Impact on Eggplant and Green Pepper Yield and Quality
AUTHORS:
George F. Antonious, Anuj Chiluwal, Anjan Nepal
KEYWORDS:
Soil Amendments, Chicken Manure, Sewage Sludge, USDA Fruit Grades
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.14 No.3,
March
14,
2023
ABSTRACT: The global obligation for food requires soil and plant management practices that provide valuable effects on the physical, chemical, and organic properties of soils. The use of animal manure, in agricultural production systems as alternative to synthetic elemental fertilizers has potential application to improve crop yield and fruit quality. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was established to investigate the impact of nine soil treatments on yield and quality of bell pepper, Capsicum annuum and eggplant, Solanum melongena. The nine soil treatments included: chitin CH, biochar Bio, sewage sludge SS, chicken manure CM, SS mixed with biochar (SSBio), SS mixed with CH (SSCH), CM mixed with biochar (CMBio), CM mixed with CH (CMCH), and unamended (UN) native soil used as control treatment. At maturity, fruits from each treatment, were counted, weighed, and classified according to the USDA grades to U.S. Fancy, U.S. No.1, U.S. No.2, and culls. Overall number and weight of green pepper fruits collected from plants grown in SSCH were significantly greater (26.2 and 3.14 kg 5 plants-1) compared to fruits of plants grown in unamended control treatment (17.1 and 1.98 kg 5 Plants-1, respectively). Whereas CH alone was superior in increasing the number and weight of eggplant fruits compared to the control treatment. Average weight and number of eggplant fruits of plants grown in soil amended with chitin (4.46 kg and 11.5, respectively) were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) greater than weight and number of fruits obtained from plants grown in other soil treatments. Results also revealed a positive correlation coefficient (r) and high probability of significance (P) between number of fruits and weight of fruits among the nine soil treatments. Utilization of animal manures in agricultural systems is an inexpensive means for limited-resource farmers looking for improvements in crop yield and quality at affordable costs.