Growth performance and metal concentration of rice (Oryza sativa l.) grown in three different soils amended with fly ash

Abstract

Fly-ash is largely alkaline in nature and contains many essential elements for plant growth along with toxic metals. Therefore, fly-ash is frequently applied for improving soil fertility. In this experiment, we studied growth performance of rice grown in three different soils (swampland, peatland, and irrigated-rice soils) amended with 20 ton fly-ash per hectare in the green-house experiment. The concentrations of metals in rice straw and grain were also measured at the end of the experiment. Result of soil analyses showed that the most distinctive property of soils used this experiment was the content of organic carbon (OC). The experiment also showed that fly-ash application significantly increased the number of rice tiller and dried-rice straw weight in peatland soils and rice production in swampland and peatland soils. Concentrations of aluminium (Al), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd) and chromium (Cr) in the rice straw and grain of peatland soil were not influenced by fly-ash application. Results obtained in this study suggest that the effect of low level of fly-ash application on the growth performance and toxic element concentrations of rice cultivated in different soils is controlled by the OC contents of those soils.