Ocimum basilicum L. growth and nutrient status as

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Sep 16, 2016 - Accepted 2 September 2016. KEYWORDS. Nano fertilizers; micronutrients; macronutrients; nutrient uptake; nutrient concentration. Introduction.
Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science

ISSN: 0365-0340 (Print) 1476-3567 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gags20

Ocimum basilicum L. growth and nutrient status as influenced by biochar and potassium-nano chelate fertilizers Maryam Zahedifar & Sharareh Najafian To cite this article: Maryam Zahedifar & Sharareh Najafian (2017) Ocimum basilicum L. growth and nutrient status as influenced by biochar and potassium-nano chelate fertilizers, Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science, 63:5, 638-650, DOI: 10.1080/03650340.2016.1233323 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2016.1233323

Accepted author version posted online: 06 Sep 2016. Published online: 16 Sep 2016. Submit your article to this journal

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Date: 23 March 2017, At: 11:55

ARCHIVES OF AGRONOMY AND SOIL SCIENCE, 2017 VOL. 63, NO. 5, 638–650 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2016.1233323

Ocimum basilicum L. growth and nutrient status as influenced by biochar and potassium-nano chelate fertilizers Maryam Zahedifara and Sharareh Najafianb a Department of Rangeland and Watershed Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Fasa University, Fasa, Iran; bDepartment of Agriculture, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT

ARTICLE HISTORY

In sustainable agriculture, the protection of environment against pollution is the main goal for consumers. Nowadays, the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, are one of the main causes of environmental pollution. It is claimed that incorporation of organic compound into soil enhances nutrient availability and plant productivity. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine the effects of 0%, 1.5% and 3% cattle manure biochar and 0, 300 and 600 mg K-nano chelate kg−1 soil on agronomic properties and nutrient status of Ocimum basilicum L. Biochar increased leaf area and plant height, significantly. Application of 1.5% and 3% biochar increased fresh weight by 40% and 42% and dry weight by 50% and 49%, respectively. Addition of 3% biochar increased P, K and Mn concentrations by 45%, 17% and 109%, respectively. Biochar increased N, P, K, Zn and Mn uptake, significantly. Addition of 300 mg K increased dry weight by 15%; while application of 600 mg K decreased it. Application of 300 and 600 mg K-nano chelate increased K and Zn concentration and K uptake significantly. Furthermore, 300 mg K increased Cu and Zn uptake. In order to achieve sustainable agricultural productions, biochar application is recommended especially in the soils of arid and semiarid regions.

Received 2 March 2016 Accepted 2 September 2016 KEYWORDS

Nano fertilizers; micronutrients; macronutrients; nutrient uptake; nutrient concentration

Introduction In order to increase plant production, without causing damage to ecosystem health, sustainable agriculture as healthy way has been proposed. In sustainable agriculture, there are two major limited factors, including low nutrient content and accelerated mineralization of soil organic matter (OM) (Renner 2007). Low OM content is one of the major worldwide problems in arid and semiarid soils. On the other hand, application of compost and animal manures as OM sources can retain nutrients into soils (Klemmedson 1989). Furthermore, recently increased greenhouse gasses concentration and global warming as important environmental concerns have received increased attention and decomposition of soil OM is considered as a main source of carbon dioxide as one of the important components of greenhouse gasses (Zhang et al. 2010). Biochar which being produced in an oxygen-restricted environment (pyrolysis process) has been proposed as amendment to improve physical and chemical soil qualities. Therefore, application of biochar and its incorporation into soil has been introduced as a potential solution for mitigating the global greenhouse gas emissions in large scale (Lucchini et al. 2014) and its use as an organic amendment has been recently rising. Furthermore, it is reported that for retaining and making

CONTACT Maryam Zahedifar [email protected]; [email protected] Department of Rangeland and Watershed Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Fasa University, Fasa, Iran © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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nutrients available to plants, biochar is considered much more effective than other OM (Zheng et al. 2013). Also, biochar is a more stable nutrient source than compost and manure. In the other word, slow release of plant macronutrients contained in the biochar is considered as an option to reduce the need for fertilizers in agriculture (Zheng et al. 2013). Incorporation of biochar can influence providing nutrients to plants directly (Silber et al. 2010). Moreover, indirectly biochar can improve soil quality by increasing fertilizer use efficiency and nutrient retention in the soil (Lehmann et al. 2003). Biochar application, depending on its quality, may affect chemical soil properties such as cation exchange capacity (CEC) and exchangeable cations and total carbon, C (Uzoma et al. 2011), nutrients availability (Uzoma et al. 2011; Karer et al. 2013), fertilizer use efficiency (Sohi et al. 2010) and heavy metal immobilization (Ahmad et al. 2014). Furthermore, Namgay et al. (2010) and Park et al. (2011) showed that application of biochar reduced heavy metal (e.g. cadmium, Cd, arsenic, As and lead, Pb) concentrations in maize shoot due to immobilization of available metals and dilution effect as a result of increasing plant biomass. Karer et al. (2013) also stated that moderate biochar application (15–20 t ha−1) may have positive effects on the soil and the resulting increased nutrient uptake from the soil may occur due to a great availability of nutrients. Atkinson et al. (2010) stated that biochar increase soluble and exchangeable P and also avoids P precipitation by modifying soil pH or increasing microbial activity leading to increased P availability and uptake by plant. However, Alburquerque et al. (2013) indicated that biochar decreased available N and manganese (Mn) due to low available N content/low N mineralization rate; high adsorption capacity and high Mn carbonate contents. Furthermore, Masto et al. (2013) showed that diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) extractable heavy metals analyzed at the end of cropping period were significantly decreased by biochar application. They reported that the maximum reduction was observed for Zn (48.4%) followed by Ni (41.4%), Co (36.9%), Cu (35.7%), Mn (34.3%), Cd (33.2%) and Pb (30.4%). They also showed that biochar with high degree of porosity and extensive surface area may act as a surface sorbent and play a significant role in controlling the availability of soil heavy metals. In order to reduction of environmental pollution, controlling and management of pest and plant disease, protection of soil quality and plant health, application of nanotechnology as a new powerful and advanced available technology has been received the increased attention. Servin et al. (2015) concluded that nanoparticles such as nano fertilizers can increase the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural practices by involving less input and causing less waste than conventional products. Also, they reported that these positive effects are expected as a result of the greater availability of the nutrients in their nano forms. Fedorenko et al. (2015) showed that nanoparticle chemicals can replace similar chemicals in ionic form. They stated that nanoparticles retain protective, nutrient and stimulating qualities characteristic of traditional micro fertilizers, but at the same time reduce the rate of treatment significantly. Polishchuk and Nazarova (2013) revealed that nanoparticles are able to intensively absorb various toxins from the soil and ensure the sustained delivery of nutrients to the plant. Basil is one of the most important medicinal and industrial plants. Its growth and yielding depend upon a range of climatic and agro-technical factors, one of the most important of which is fertilization. Basil is considered as a species with quite substantial fertilization and nutritional needs (Nurzyńska-Wierdak et al. 2012). It has been reported that its growth parameters and the chemical composition of its tissues/extracts/essential oils strongly responds to applied chemical or organic fertilizers (Golcz et al. 2006; Biesiada & Kuś 2010; Nguyen et al. 2010; Nurzyńska-Wierdak et al. 2012; Bufalo et al. 2015). For instance, Nguyen et al. (2010) stated that changes in the rate of applied K can significantly impact the phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity of basil leaves. They showed that the highest concentrations of the aforementioned components were observed at the highest K rate, 5 mM. Bufalo et al. (2015) found that basil plants under organic fertilizer accumulated higher macro- and micronutrient concentrations. However, Nurzyńska-Wierdak et al. (2012)

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concluded that the increasing level of K (K2O) did not cause significant differences in the fresh or dry weight of basil probably due to the fact that harvest was performed only once. Many studies showed that the effects of biochar or K fertilizers on crop production are of great variability, depending on the type of biochar or K fertilizers and experimental conditions. Thus, it is necessary to know the beneficial aspects of biochar and K-nano chelates on crop yield in order to promote the adoption of this practice in agriculture. Additionally, this strategy can enhance crop production with the environmental benefits of global warming mitigation. On the other hand, limited researches have been studied the effects of nano fertilizes on the yield and chemical composition of plants tissues especially at the conditions of biochar application in calcareous soils. Due to the aforementioned benefits of biochar and nano chelate fertilizers and also the importance of the Ocimum basilicum L. as a medicinal and industrial plant, therefore, the objectives of our study were to determine the potential influences of biochar and nano potassium chelate fertilizer on the yield (agronomic properties) and nutrient status of Ocimum basilicum L. in a calcareous soil.

Materials and methods Soil collection and analysis before planting A loamy calcareous soil (Typic Calcixerepts) was selected to conduct the experiment. The soil physical and chemical analyses were performed according to the following common standard methods: soil texture components (sand, silt and clay contents) by hydrometer method (Bouyoucos 1962), pH of saturated paste by glass electrode pH meter (EDTRE 357, Microprocessor pH-meter, Series 3, U.K.), electrical conductivity (EC) of saturated extract by EC-meter (METROHM 644, Conductometer, Swiss), calcium carbonate equivalent (CCE) by neutralization method with normal hydrochloric acid 1 N and titration with sodium hydroxide (Loeppert & Suarez 1996), CEC by substitution method (Chapman 1965), OM by the wet oxidation method (Nelson & Sommers 1996), total nitrogen (N) by Bremner (1996) method, concentration of the available forms of micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn) through extraction with DTPA (Lindsay & Norvell 1978 after Moosavi et al. 2014, 2015) and reading with atomic absorption spectrophotometer, available phosphorus (P) through extraction with NaHCO3 (Olsen et al. 1954) and available K with Helmeke and Sparks (1996) method (Table 1).

Table 1. Some physical and chemical properties of the studied soil. Soil properties Value Sand (%) 31 Silt (%) 35 Clay (%) 24 Soil texture class Loam pH of saturated paste 7.7 0.38 Electrical conductivity of saturated extract, ECe (dS m−1) 485 Calcium carbonate equivalent, CCE (mg kg−1) Organic matter, OM (%) 1.4 Olsen (sodium bicarbonate extractable) phosphorus, P (mg kg−1) 8.45 −1 14.2 Cation exchange capacity, CEC (cmol(+) kg ) 37 Available potassium, K (mg kg−1) Total nitrogen, N (%) 0.12 3.43 DTPA*-extractable iron, Fe (mg kg−1) 4.57 DTPA-extractable manganese, Mn (mg kg−1) 2.93 DTPA-extractable zinc, Zn (mg kg−1) 1.23 DTPA-extractable copper, Cu (mg kg−1) *Diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid.

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Biochar characteristics The biochar was a cattle manure-based slow pyrolysis product (300°C for a 4 h;