Ferric Hexacyanoferrate Effects on Soil Health and Soybean and Wheat Growth.

Recently, ferric hexacyanoferrate has been proposed as a soil amendment for remediating sodium chloride contaminated soils. However, the scientific literature lacks any reports of ferric hexacyanoferrate, or the first degradation product hexacyanoferrate, on soil chemical properties, soil microbial communities, or plant growth. Therefore, our objective was to evaluate various ferric hexacyanoferrate loading rates (0, 0.5X, 1.0X, and 5.0X relative to recommended rates to remediate salt contaminated soils) on potted fine sandy loam soils in the greenhouse with soybean and wheat plants. After seeding the amended plots, plant growth indices were monitored weekly in the greenhouse. After eight weeks from plant germination, above and below ground plant tissues were separated and analyzed for various indices of plant growth and health. Soil samples were then analyzed for typical soil fertility parameters and phospholipid fatty acid analysis for microbial community structure. These data will be presented and discussed.