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The Effect of Sawdust on Crop Growth and Physical and Biological Properties of Cecil Soil¹

ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted over a 3-year period from 1954 through 1956 to determine the effect of pine sawdust on crop growth and soil properties. Corn was grown all 3 years of the experiment and tomatoes and lima beans for 2 years.

Sawdust incorporated with the soil had no beneficial effect on plant growth. However, when sawdust was applied as a mulch, crop yields were increased markedly with the exception of corn in 1954, an extremely dry year. Higher yields of crops on mulched soils apparently resulted from an increase in available water supply and a reduction in soil temperature as compared to the unmulched plots. A nitrogen variable included in the corn investigation revealed that high N application was required to obtain increased corn yields from sawdust mulch. Sawdust, applied either as a mulch or mixed with the soil, decreased the nitrate content of the soil. The soil microbial population was not influenced by the mulch but was increased by incorporating sawdust with the soil.

¹ Contribution from the Department of Agronomy, University of Georgia, Athens. Approved by the Director of the College Exp. Sta. as Journal Paper No. 89. Presented before Div. III, Soil Science Society of America, Nov. 20, 1957, Atlanta, Ga.

² Formerly graduate student, University of Georgia, presently with the Soil and Water Conservation Research Division, ARS, USDA, Tifton, Ga.; Associate Professor; and Professor, respectively.

Received for publication December 22, 1958. Accepted for publication January 2, 1959.