Efficiency of molasses waste when growing potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) as a new promising organic fertilizer

Abstract

It has been established that the waste of the alcohol and sugar industry (molasses innovative fertilizer) contains a complex of nutrients, which indicates the feasibility of their use as fertilizers for growing crops. This use of these types of waste will help solve the problem of their utilization, as they accumulate in significant volumes in the areas adjacent to the factories, in storage ponds. At the same time, the issue of reducing soil depletion of key nutrients due to the shortage of traditional organic fertilizers and the high cost of mineral fertilizers will be partially resolved. According to the results of field studies, the effectiveness of using waste in potato fertilization systems on soddy-loamy, bound sandy soil has been proven in order to obtain consistently high yields. In particular, it was found that the introduction of this type of waste at a rate of 10 t/ha ensures the formation of tubers weighing 92.7 g and 66 mm in diameter, and with a twofold increase in the rate — 109.3 g and 74 mm, respectively. These biometric parameters provided potato yields of 19.7 t/ha when using waste at a rate of 10 t/ha and 26.6 t/ha when using 20 t/ha. A positive effect on the quality indicators of potato tubers was recorded when using waste as fertilizer, in particular, the starch content was at the level of 16.6–16.7%. A positive effect of molasses innovative fertilizer on abStract 154 agroecological journal • no. 1 • 2023 the agrochemical parameters of the soil was also found, which is manifested in an increase in the content of nutrients in the tilth layer of soil (0–20 cm): nitrate forms of nitrogen (N–NO3) by 2.0–7.2 mg/kg, ammonium forms of nitrogen (N–NH4) — 0.4–1.1 mg/kg, mobile forms of phosphorus (P2O5) — 5.4–8.4 mg/kg and mobile forms of potassium (K2O) — 26.6– 40.6 mg/kg. The possibility of using waste in combination with mineral fertilizers was noted, which balances the fertilizer system and provides additional growth of potato tuber yield.