Fertility Improvement by Addition of Pretreated Spent Straws in Soil

To promote and improve field utilization of spent straws, microbial degradation of stalks of corn, sorghum, and rape plants was studied for pretreatment prior to mixing with soil.Addition of degraded cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin is known to upgrade the fertility on paddy, yellow and sandy loam soils.In this study, when Bio-agent A, Bio-agent B and corn stalks were blended in the ratio of 1:1:1 000 to ferment, the straw degradation was significantly accelerated. After a year of fermentation, the total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium and organic matters in the soil increased significantly. Using the pretreated, in comparison to the naturally fermented, straws to mix with soil for growing cabbages, a significant fresh vegetable weight gain was clearly demonstrated in a pot experiment.