Sewage sludge compost in zoysia grass sod production

• Main Authors: Flávia Diniz Mota, Roberto Lyra Villas Bôas, Caroline de Moura D´Andréa Mateus, Tatiane Bortoletto Gomes da Silva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais em Bacias Hidrográficas (IPABHi) 2019-01-01
• Series: Revista Ambiente & Água
• Subjects: nitrogen; organic fertilization; soil cover rate; SPAD; turfgrass
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1980-993X2019000100314&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en

This study evaluated whether the use of composted sewage sludge in zoysia grass sod production can partially or completely substitute fertilization based on urea. The experiment was conducted on a sod farm located in Itapetininga, São Paulo State, Brazil. The experimental design was a complete randomized block design with five replications and experimental plots of 5 m2 in a 2x6 factorial scheme. The first factor was the method of application (single or split), and the second factor was composted sewage sludge fertilization and two controls (no fertilization and a standard dose of conventional fertilizer). The conventional fertilizer (urea) dose corresponds to 300 kg N ha-1 and the sewage compost doses correspond to 100, 200, 300, and 400 kg N ha-1. The experiment began with the liming of the total area at 60 days after the previous harvest of zoysia grass sod. Three methods were used to evaluate sod production: soil cover rate, green color intensity, and leaf analysis. At 212 days after the beginning of the experiment, the compost treatment of 30 Mg ha-1 (300 kg ha-1 of N), applied in a single dose, allowed for complete sod formation (100% soil cover rate).