Changes in Soil Chemical Properties and Growth Performance of

Corn (Zea mays L.) Grown in an Acidic-tropical Soil Amended with

Fly-ash

Akhmad Rizalli Saidy

1,2

, Bambang Joko Priatmadi

1,2

and Rizmi Yunita

Department of Soil, Faculty of Agriculture, Lambung Mangkurat University, Jalan Achmad Yani KM 36 Banjarbaru

70714, Indonesia.

Doctoral Program of Agricultural Science, Postgraduate Program of Lambung Mangkurat University, Jalan Achmad Yani

KM 36 Banjarbaru 70714, Indonesia

Keywords: Toxic elements, soil amendment, lime materials, heavy metals, exchangeable aluminium

Abstract: Fly-ash, by product in coal power-plant production, has many essential nutrients for plant growth along with

toxic metals. Therefore, fly-ash is frequently applied for improving soil fertility. In this experiment, we

applied four different amounts of fly-ash, viz. 0 (100% soil), 25, 50 and 75 Mg ha

-1

to an acidic-tropical soil

and determined the changes in soil chemical properties and corn production in a green-house experiment.

Results of study showed that fly-ash application improved soil pH, exchangeable cations (Na, K, Ca and

Mg), cation exchangeable capacity (CEC), concentrations of aluminium and iron. The experiment also

showed that fly-ash application to soils also improved corn growth (plant height and dried-weight shoot)

and production. Fly-ash 50 Mg ha

-1

lead to higher corn production than the fly-ash application of 25 Mg ha

, and increasing the amounts of added fly-ash did not significantly increase the corn production. Results of

this study demonstrate that medium-level of fly-ash application resulted in the improvements of soil

chemical properties and corn production.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the problems corn cultivation in dry-land is

high soil-acidity (low pH of the soil). Low soil pH

results in low availability of soil phosphorus,

calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium (Bohn

et al., 2001), and this condition eventually results in

unhealthy plant growth. The soil acidity problem can

be reduced by the application of soil ameliorant. Soil

amelioration materials such as lime and organic

matter have been generally applied to soils for soil

characteristic improvement (Ma et al., 2018; Soong

et al., 2018). Soil amelioration increases soil pH

(dos Santos et al., 2018; Jayalath et al., 2016; Li &

Johnson, 2016; Soong et al., 2018) and improves the

content of nutrients such as N, P, K, Ca and Mg

(Holland et al., 2018; Rheinheimer et al., 2018;

Soong et al., 2018).

Fly-ash is the result of the combustion process

that contains elements such as Si, K, Ca, Mg and Na

(Swain et al., 2007), which is generally existed in

oxide form so that is able to increase the soil pH and

cation exchange capacity (Clark et al., 2001). Fly-

ash generally contains 4.9 to 25.2% CaO, 1.3 to

5.1% MgO, 1.0 to 1.7% Na

O, 0.6 to 1.3% K

O and

from 36.9 to 52.5 % SiO

(Kishor et al., 2010);

therefore, fly-ash is potential to be applied for soil

amelioration. However, the use of fly-ash as a soil

ameliorant is currently not done broadly because of

the high concentration heavy metals in the fly-ash.

The use of fly-ash for improvement of soil

properties is already done in some countries.

Previous research showed that application of fly-ash

to soils as a source of Si is able to increase the

uptake of Si, P and K, and thereby increasing rice

production (Lee et al., 2006). The research also

showed that no accumulation of heavy metals in in

rice plant was observed after fly-ash application. In

this study, we applied different amounts of fly-ash to

soils and then determined changes in chemical soil

characteristics and the growth performance of corn

grown at that amended soils.

Rizalli Saidy, A., Joko Priatmadi, B. and Yunita, R.

Changes in Soil Chemical Properties and Growth Performance of Corn (Zea mays L.) Grown in an Acidic-tropical Soil Amended with Fly-ash.

DOI: 10.5220/0009896900002480

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (ICNRSD 2018), pages 22-26

ISBN: 978-989-758-543-2

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Sampling of Soil and Fly-ash

Soil samples for this experiment was collected from

the Experimental Plot for Up-land Crops, Lambung

Mangkurat University, Pelaihari, South Kalimantan,

Indonesia. The soil was sampled at a depth of 0-30

cm at several different points, and then the samples

were homogenized. Plant debris was carefully

removed from the collected samples and then stored

in polyethylene vessels at 5

C. Fly-ash used for this

study was sampled from the Asam-asam Steam

Power Plant, South Kalimantan Province, Indonesia.

2.2 Greenhouse Experiment

Seven kilograms of soil was placed in a 10-L pot,

then fly-ash in equal amount to 0, 25, 50 and 75 Mg

-1

was added to the pots, swirled gently until the

fly-ash evenly distributed to the soils. Water was

applied to the pots to acquire 70% of water field

capacity, then the pots were incubated for 15 days.

Each treatment of soil and fly-ash had five

replicates. Water was added periodically to each pot

during the incubation period to compensate for

evaporative losses and ensure constant water content

in each pot. At the end of incubation, a 250 g of soil

sub-sample was taken from the pot for determination

of soil pH, exchangeable cations (Na, K, Ca and

Mg), cation exchangeable capacity, exchangeable

aluminium and iron, mineral nitrogen and available

phosphor.

Seeds of corn (2-3 seeds) grown in the pots and

only one corn plant was allowed to be grown in the

pots after three weeks. Nitrogen, phosphorous and

potassium fertilizers were applied to each pot at the

rates of 150 kg, 100 kg and 100 kg per hectare,

respectively. Plant maintenance was carried out by

daily watering, weeding as well as pest and disease

control by using pesticides if necessary. Measuring

of corn growth and production were conducted after

90 days of planting.

2.3 Statistical Analysis

Influence of fly-ash application on changes in the

soil properties and the growth of corn was quantified

through analysis of variance (Anova) followed by

the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test at level

of P<0.05. Prior to the analysis of variance,

Shapiro-Wilk’s and Bartlett’s tests were carried out

to ensure data to be analyzed have a normal

distribution and equal variances, respectively. All

statistical tests were conducted using the package of

GenStat 12

Edition (Payne, 2008).

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Changes in Soil Characteristics

with Fly-ash Application

Results of study showed that fly-ash application

increased soil CEC, soil pH, exchangeable Al, Fe,

inorganic nitrogen and available P (Figure 1).

Increased soil pH occurs because fly-ash containing

CaO and MgO, which reacted with H

ions to

neutralize soil acidity. The greater the amount of fly-

ash application, the greater the amount of CaO and

MgO are given into the soils, thus the greater the

change in soil pH. It was reported in the previous

study that the neutralization capacity of fly-ash

ranged from 0.01 to 3.74 meq per gram H

(Kishor

et al., 2010). Increasing the pH of the soil treated

with fly-ash was also reported in several other

studies (Clark et al., 2001; Lee et al., 2006; Sajwan

et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007).

Changes in Soil Chemical Properties and Growth Performance of Corn (Zea mays L.) Grown in an Acidic-tropical Soil Amended with

Fly-ash

Figure 1. Changes in soil pH (a), cation exchangeable capacity – CEC (b), mineral/inorganic nitrogen (c), exchangeable

aluminium (d), exchangeable iron (e), and available P (f) as influenced by the different amount of fly-ash application.

Figure 2: Changes in exchangeable calcium (a),

magnesium (b), sodium (c) and potassium as influenced

by fly-ash application.

Concentrations of exchangeable aluminium and

iron in soil also increased with fly-ash application.

The activity and solubility of certain metals may

change with changes in pH. For example, aluminium

is relatively insoluble as Al(OH)

at neutral pH, but

it exists predominantly as highly soluble at pH range

of 3.4 and 6.3 (Bohn et al., 2001; Sposito, 2004).

Iron is also observed in insoluble phase at neutral

pH, and the solubility of iron increase considerably

when pH drops to a range of 3.7 and 5.9 (Sposito,

2004). When fly-ash was added to soils with a range

of acidic pH, the aluminium and iron contained in

the fly-ash dissolved and increased the amount of

exchangeable aluminium and iron in soils.

Available phosphor and inorganic nitrogen

(NH

and NO

) of the soils increased significantly

with fly-ash application (Figure 1). Low

concentration of phosphor is often reported for

acidic soils due to strong retention of phosphorus ion

by mineral soils (Vitousek et al., 2010). Soil pH is

believed to be one of the most significant soil

characteristics since it affects nutrient availability in

soil systems (Kemmitt et al., 2006; Lauber et al.,

2009). Fly-ash application increased soil pH and

eventually improved available phosphor (Figure 1).

Another possible explanation for increasing

available phosphor with fly-ash application is that

fly-ash contains essential nutrients such K, Mg, P

and S (Knapp & Insam, 2011). Consequently, fly-

ash application to soils may provide soils with an

abundant range of essential nutrients, among them

phosphor. Previous study showed that significant

increase in available phosphor for plants in soil

systems following the incorporation of fly-ash to the

soils (Schönegger et al., 2018).

ICNRSD 2018 - International Conference on Natural Resources and Sustainable Development

Plant-available nitrogen (NH

and NO

) also

improved significantly after application of fly-ash to

the soils. It is well documented that soil pH plays an

important role in controlling the rate of nitrogen

mineralization, which increasing soil pH enhance

organic nitrogen mineralization (Kemmitt et al.,

2006; Ste-Marie & Paré, 1999; Thompson et al.,

1954). Fly-ash incorporation in this study was able

to improve soil pH from 4.7 to 5.1-5.7, depending

the amounts of added fly-ash (Figure 1). Increasing

soil pH subsequently leads to increase in the

concentration of plant-available nitrogen, consistent

with previous study reported that application of 50

Mg ha

-1

fly-ash enhance plant-available inorganic

nitrogen in paddy field (Singh et al., 2011).

Results of the study showed that the fly-ash

application affected the concentration of

exchangeable Na, Ca, and Mg in soil. Fig. 2 showed

that the concentration of exchangeable Ca and Mg

was higher than other cations (Na, K, and Mg) in all

soils applied with fly-ash. This is due to the higher

Ca and Mg contents than other cations (Na and K) of

fly-ash, so that the availability of Ca and Mg

increased significantly when the fly-ash is added to

the soils. This result is consistent with the previous

study that reported that Ca is the most dominant

cation of soils applied with fly-ash (Sharma & Kalra,

2006).

3.2 Growth Performance of Corn with

Fly-ash Application

Growth performance of corn (plant height, dry shoot

matter weight and yield) was also improved by fly-

ash application (Figure 3). Increasing growth

performance of corn is attributed to increase in

nutrient uptake by corn with fly-ash application.

This was supported by significant correlations

between nitrogen, phosphor and potassium uptake

and the parameters of corn growth performance

(plant height, dry shoot matter weight and yield)

(data not shown).

Figure 3: Influence of fly-ash application on corn growth and production

4 CONCLUSIONS

Observations on the chemical characteristics of soil

showed that soil pH, exchangeable bases (Ca, Mg,

Na and K), cation exchangeable capacity (CEC),

mineral nitrogen, available P, exchangeable

aluminium and iron improved with fly-ash

application. The growth and production of corn also

improve with fly-ash addition to soils. Increases in

maize growth and production may relate to

increasing the nutrient uptake by corn with fly- ash

application. It could be concluded that fly-ash

application to soils is able to improve the fertility of

acidic soils and the growth of plant.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledged the PT. Perusahaan

Listrik Negara (PLN) (Persero) for funding this

study through the cooperation between PT PLN

(Persero) and Environmental Research Centre,

Lambung Mangkurat University.

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