Combining Legumes and Compost: A Viable Alternative for Farmers in Conversion to Organic Agriculture

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Abstract
Soil nitrogen (N) availability and crop performance of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. orion) were observed in a field plot study under different organic amendments addition and chemical fertilizer. The treatments consisted on no amendment; poultry manure based compost, woollypod vetch (Vicia dasycarpa var. lana), a combination of compost with Lana vetch and ammonium sulphate. For almost all sampling dates, the soils treated with vetch (3.6 Mg/ha) combined with compost (9.0 Mg/ha) showed a good performance in replenishing the inorganic N taken up by plants and soil microbes. High yields were achieved with the combination of vetch and compost and moderately high yields were achieved with vetch only and compost only. Yields appeared to be related to quality and N levels in the amendments, and size of existing soil nitrogen pools susceptible to the priming effect.