TY - CONF AU - Najjar, Ashwaq AU - Kuchendorf, Christina AU - Kuhn, Arnd Jürgen AU - Al-Tardeh, Sharaf TI - Amendment of poor soil substrate by biochar saturated with biofertilizers (algae, manure) for sustainable production of relevant Palestinian and German crop plants Solanum lycopersicum L. and Hordeum vulgare L. M1 - FZJ-2024-00479 PY - 2023 N1 - Grant info: PGSB Palestinian German Science Bridge, FKZ 01DH16027 AB - Soil degradation is a global problem that affects many regions and communities, resulting in poor and stress-prone marginal soils. The potentially positive effects of carbon and nutrient content increase through the addition of nutrient-saturated biochar were investigated on poor and saline substrate in experiments with tomato and barley. Biochar treatments were applied to nutrient- and carbon-poor sandy substrates in two greenhouse pot experiments. Biochar mixed with biofertilizers (algae & pig manure) at three total carbon content levels (0.1, 0.3, 0.5 % C-concentration) was applied to test its effects on tomato growth and soil properties during early growth stages. As a follow-up, carbon addition was increased to 2% via a biochar-sheep manure mixture to test its effect on growth parameters and quality of two barley cultivars (Palestinian & German). Results showed that increasing mineral-fertilizer saturated biochar concentration up to 0.5 % total C in saline soil (4 EC) increased tomato total fruit numbers but delayed the ripening process (24% red fruits in untreated pots, 15% in treated pots). In saline environment, biochar-pig manure mixture led to the highest tomato shoot dry weight (41g) compared to 0% biochar treatments (31g). Increased biochar amount (up to 2%) led to increased shoot fresh weight of up to 1.7g in the German barley cultivar after a 1-month growth period, compared to non-treated (0% biochar) pots at 0.9g, respectively. Increasing biochar up to 2% increased the soil water-holding capacity by up to 17% compared to 0% biochar control. In conclusion, nutrient-saturated biochar constitutes a sustainable solution to condition substrates to improve the quality and fertility of the soil by helping to close the nutrient cycle and increasing the water hold capacity, especially in carbon-poor soil substrate. Further up-scaled greenhouse and field experiments are needed to evaluate longer-term effects on yield and soil parameters. T2 - 7th Internationales BioSC Symposium: "Bio-based solutions for a sustainable economy" CY - 6 Nov 2023 - 7 Nov 2023, LVR Landesmuseum, Bonn (Germany) Y2 - 6 Nov 2023 - 7 Nov 2023 M2 - LVR Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)24 DO - DOI:10.34734/FZJ-2024-00479 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1021019 ER -