Use of quality compost on arboreus cultivation to improve soil fertility

• Main Authors: Pietro Antonio Buda, Maria Del Bianco, Mario D’Ercole, Grazia Guastadisegni, Giovanni Fecondo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PAGEPress Publications 2008-07-01
• Series: Italian Journal of Agronomy
• Online Access: http://www.agronomy.it/index.php/agro/article/view/257

In the last years, thank to remarkable technical-scientific progresses, agricultural production has reached very high values with regard to quantitative and qualitative aspects. To reach these objectives, the collectivity must pay high prices, as reduction of fertility soils, greater risk of erosive process in the hill areas, pollution of surface and deep water and of air, because the use of agrotechnical means (fertilizers, pesticides, mechanical means) isn’t often appropriate. In two farms located in Scerni and Monteodorisio, we have carried out an experimental trial on a vineyard and on a olive grove, with the objective of using the quality compost obtained from the mixture of organic fraction of urban solid waste and the lignocellulosic residues, in order to recover organic refuses and to verify the possibility of improving the soil fertility. After two years of trials, we have found higher contents of organic matter and nutritive elements in the soil. The use of compost has not modified the quantity and the quality of products.