Effects of Liquid Organic Fertilizers on Plant Growth and Rhizosphere Soil Characteristics of Chrysanthemum

Rongting Ji, Gangqiang Dong, Weiming Shi and Ju Min
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Rongting Ji: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Gangqiang Dong: Amway (China) Botanical R&D Center, Wuxi 214115, China
Weiming Shi: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Ju Min: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Organic fertilizers are generally thought to be an effective way to sustain soil fertility and plant growth. To promote the productivity of chrysanthemum, five sources of liquid organic fertilizers (L1–L5), as well as a chemical fertilizer, were applied at an early stage of the growth cycle to investigate their effects on plant growth. In the short-term pot experiment, the liquid organic fertilizers significantly promoted root and aboveground growth by 10.2–77.8% and 10.7–33.3%, respectively, compared with the chemical fertilizer. The order of growth promotion was: L1 (shrimp extracts) > L2 (plant decomposition) > L4 (seaweed extracts)/L5 (fish extracts) > L3 (vermicompost). Morphological and chemical analyses indicated that, compared with other organic fertilizers, the treatment with shrimp extract (L1) produced the greatest increases in root dry weight, total length, surface area, volume, tips, and thick root length, respectively. Furthermore, the shrimp extract treatment significantly increased the nutrient contents and altered the soil’s functional microbial community at the rhizospheric level compared with the chemical fertilizer treatment. Thus, the shrimp extract liquid organic fertilizer could be part of an effective alternative to chemical fertilization during the early stage of chrysanthemum growth.

Keywords: liquid organic fertilizer; chrysanthemum; root architecture; nutrient level; microbial community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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