Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2020 number 2

The problem of sawdust utilization represents a challenge for almost all regions of Russia. At the same time, agricultural lands suffer from acute deficiency of organic fertilizers. The technology of sawdust composting using an association of microorganisms, which has been developed at the Irkutsk Institute of Chemistry SB RAS, allows, at least partially, addressing both of these problems. The paper deals with the main agrochemical indicators of the fertilizer produced from sawdust. Composting is carried out using different types of sawdust (deciduous and coniferous) over different years in various regions of Russia. It is shown that regardless of the substrate composition, time and place of composting, the fertilizer is stable in terms of composition and basic agrochemical indicators. The total amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the compost is comparable to that in high-quality organic fertilizers like high-moor peat, while the content of the mobile forms of main biogenic elements is higher. These substances, as well as humic acids, which are contained in the fertilizer, ensure the effective growth and development of plants during the vegetation season. The finished compost has a high cation exchange capacity and low hydrolytic acidity, which allow decreasing the removal of cations from plough layers. The advantages of the compost include close-to-neutral pH value and the absence of weed seeds and phytopathogens. The fertilizer does not contain phytopathogenic microorganisms and parasites, and the amount of toxic and hazardous substances is much lower than the maximum permissible concentrations established for soils. The use of this compost will not only increase the yield of agricultural crops, but also permit to eliminate the large-tonnage waste of timber processing enterprises.