ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract.

For decades, potato growers in arid regions of Iran have been dealing with the negative impacts of cattle manure (CM) on the soil chemical properties. Recently, the Organi Humme catalyzer (OH) has been emerged as an alternate solution to mitigate these effects. However, to date, no research has been carried out to confirm its potential advantages over the CM. A field study was conducted in 2011-2012 during growing season to evaluate and compare the effect of CM and OH on the yield and growth characteristics of two potato varieties of Satina and Burren. The two varieties were grown in an agricultural field located in Isfahan, Iran using a factorial design with three replications. The experimental treatments were control (C), OH (150 kg ha^-1) and CM (20 t ha^-1). Soil amendment had significant effects on tuber yield (TY), starch content (SC), shoot height (SH), shoot and root dry matter (SDM and RDM), and also on the root length (RL). Potato variety had a significant effects on the SH, RDM and RL but not on TY, SDM or SC. In general, the TY under the OH treatment was 7% and 13.5% higher than C and CM treatments, respectively. The OH treatment also maximized SH, SC, RL, SDM and RDM. The soil chemical analysis indicated that CM increases soil salinity while it has no significant effect on improving the soil organic matter. The OH on the other hand proofed to be a good alternative although it contains lower fractions of N, P and K.