Effect of soil amendment with dry and wet distillers grains on growth of canola and soil properties

Abstract

Controlled environment experiments were set up to evaluate the effect of applying distillers grains to soil as organic amendments to increase soil fertility, crop growth and soil organic matter. The two distiller grains were applied at different rates in comparison with urea fertilizer. Canola was grown as the test crop in amended pots, and plant yield, composition and soil properties were measured after five weeks. Both distiller grains were found to be effective soil amendments for increasing canola biomass yield. Per unit of nitrogen added, yields were less than that of urea, due to only a portion of the nitrogen in the amendment becoming available over the five-week period. However, when nutrients other than nitrogen were limiting, canola dry matter yields with organic amendment approached or exceeded that of urea, due to the ability of the amendments to supply other nutrients in addition to nitrogen.