A preliminary study of the effect of biochar from maple ( Acer spp.) on root growth of selected agronomic crops.

摘要

Biochar is any type of stable, organic matter that is incompletely burned with little to no oxygen until the material reaches a charcoal-like stage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate root elongation of pea ( Pisum sativum L.) and durum wheat ( Triticum durum L.) seedlings when biochar was applied, at different concentrations (5%, 10%, 20%, 100%), in rhizotrones where these were grown. Assessing the number of secondary roots inside and out of the biochar and the growth rate of primary roots were considered also in this study to substantiate its beneficial effects towards plants development. Sixty rhizotrones were employed in this study. The biochar was placed in 3 cm layers at a depth of 10 cm in each rhizotrone. The seeds were germinated for seven days and then transplanted in the rhizotrones. The primary root of each seedling was measured every 3 days and all plants were grown until the primary root reached the bottom of the rhizotrone, which coincided with root measurements taken 9 days after planting (DAP). The data were analyzed with JMP software and ANOVA tests were employed to test the hypotheses. No significant differences were found for both pea [F(4, 85)=2.07, p>0.05] and wheat [F(4, 85)=2.38, p>0.05] although the mean growth rate was highest among peas (4.49 cm/day) with 10% biochar and among wheat seedlings (4.5 cm/day) with 5%. Biochar can be used to restore soil fertility when applied in small concentrations (<10%). However, additional tests with more plant species are needed in future investigations to further substantiate this conclusion. CT International Symposium on Growing Media, Composting and Substrate Analysis, Barcelona, Spain.