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Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems

Thesis submitted to the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy (Landscape Science & Ecology) degree.

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Main Author: Abubakari, Abdul-Halim
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Abubakari, Abdul-Halim
author_browse Abubakari, Abdul-Halim
author_facet Abubakari, Abdul-Halim
author_sort Abubakari, Abdul-Halim
collection Thesis
description Thesis submitted to the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy (Landscape Science & Ecology) degree.
format Thesis
id oai:ir.knust.edu.gh:123456789/8928
institution KNUST (Ghana)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:23.640Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from KNUSTSpace — Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (Ghana)
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
record_format dspace
source_str KNUSTSpace — Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (Ghana)
spelling oai:ir.knust.edu.gh:123456789/8928 Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems Abubakari, Abdul-Halim Thesis submitted to the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy (Landscape Science & Ecology) degree. A survey was carried out in Tamale and Kumasi among horticultural practitioners from March 2012 to June 2012 and subsequently, experiments were carried out from June 2012 to June 2015 to select and standardise organic materials as media for urban horticulture. Following the survey, i) single species sawdust (SS), ii) mixed species sawdust (MS) and ii) Rice husk (RH) were each co-composted with poultry manure in 2:1, 3:1 and 4:1 volumetric ratios of feedstock to poultry manure. This resulted in nine compost-types (formulations) being 2SS, 3SS, 4SS, 2MS, 3MS, 4MS, 2RH, 3RH and 4RH. Experiments were set-up in greenhouse and in the field to determine the rate of application of compost and biochar as amendment in soil and soilless media for vegetables and ornamentals. Treatments included compost-type:topsoil and compost-type:biochar mixes in soil experiments as well as compost-type:biochar mixes as soilless media. Competely Randomised Design was used for greenhouse experiments and Randomised Complete Block Design for the field experiment. The 2SS compost matured earliest (8 weeks) with Carbon: Nitrogen ratio (C:N) of 15 and highest nitrogen level of 2.46 %. The 1-part 2RH compost + 3 parts topsoil as well as 1 part of 2SS compost + 3 parts topsoil were the best for vegetables. The 2 parts of 2MS + 3 parts topsoil was the best for ornamentals. Sawdust compost (at 10 t/ha) + sawdust biochar (at 5 t/ha) was the best compost biochar mix for field production of vegetables. The 1 part of 2RH compost + 2 parts rice husk was the best media for greenhouse zinnia production. The 2SS compost + SS biochar was best media for greenhouse production of vegetables. The present study has clearly demonstrated that common agro-industrial by-products which are currently causing environmental challenges to urban authorities can be developed into nutrient rich media suitable for horticultural production systems and greening of the urban landscape. KNUST 2016-09-27T15:36:08Z 2023-04-20T00:28:45Z 2016-09-27T15:36:08Z 2023-04-20T00:28:45Z AUGUST, 2015 Thesis https://ir.knust.edu.gh/handle/123456789/8928 en application/pdf
spellingShingle Abubakari, Abdul-Halim
Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
title Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
title_full Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
title_fullStr Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
title_full_unstemmed Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
title_short Standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
title_sort standardisation of organic materials as amendment for soil and soilless media in urban horticultural production systems
url https://ir.knust.edu.gh/handle/123456789/8928
work_keys_str_mv AT abubakariabdulhalim standardisationoforganicmaterialsasamendmentforsoilandsoillessmediainurbanhorticulturalproductionsystems