Increasing Plant-Available Phosphorus through Effective Microorganism Treatment.

Organic manures often contain large amounts of organic phosphorus unavailable for plant uptake until undergoing enzymatically catalyzed release reactions. Phosphatases produced by soil microbes drive the hydrolysis of phosphate groups from organic molecules, producing phosphate ions available for nutrient uptake by crops. High soil biodiversity and biomass tend to increase the prevalence of phosphatases for nutrient conversion. Adding biodiversity and biomass through microbial inoculants (Local Effective Microorganisms-LEM) may increase plant-availability of nutrients supplied by manure. The objective of the research project focuses on increasing the hydrolytic release of phosphate ions by applying a microbially-inoculated treatment during composting of locally-sourced, organic broiler litter and to field plots post-application of compost. If higher biodiversity and biomass indicate higher amounts of plant-available phosphorus, the crop could potentially produce higher yields, more nutrient-dense crops, or both. LEM treated plots had the least M1 soil P (kg ha^-1) in end-season sampling would indicate more P became plant-available. Total P analysis showed a significantly greater increase between second post-treatment application sampling for 2016 than all other sampling dates regardless of treatments.

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See more from this Division: SSSA Division: Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition
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