THE APPLICATION OF COW DUNG DERIVED BIOCHAR TO IMPROVE pH, ENHANCE BUFFERING CAPACITY AND WATER-HOLDING CAPACITY OF GRAY SOIL (ACRISOLS) IN CU CHI, HO CHI MINH CITY

Abstract

The soil is acidified increasingly serious because discharge actions from industrial activities and using the excess of chemical fertilizers in agriculture. Soil amendment by applying biochar from agricultural by-products is the trend of green agriculture. The purposes of the study were to evaluate the applying cow dung derived biochar which prepared at different pyrolysis temperatures to improve pH, pH buffering capacity and water-holding capacity of the gray Cu Chi soil, HCMC. Experimental methods included (i) biochar preparation (at temperatures 300, 450, 600), (ii) soil incubation and (iii) determination of pH, pH buffering capacity, and water holding capacity. The results of the study showed that biochar added to gray soil has contributed to improve pH, improving pH buffering capacity and increasing the water holding capacity of the soil. The results also showed that the using 300 biochar at a rate of 3% is suitable to amendment grey Cu Chi soil (pH, pH buffering capacity and water holding capacity), because it is benefic the costs (low pyrolysis temperature and hight recovery effect). The study results have confirmed the applicability of biochar derived from cow manure at low pyrolysis temperatures to improve soil parameters including pH, pH buffering capacity and water-holding capacity on gray soils is based.