Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXVIII, Issue 2
Written by Mihaela ŠATVAR VRBANČIĆ, Marko PETEK, Antun ŠOKEC, Tomislav KARAŽIJA, Erik MEERS, Lepomir ČOGA, Željko JUKIĆ
Maize grains accumulate nitrogen (N), especially in the form of storage proteins, correlated to zeins and starch content. Digestate, a new bio-based fertilizer rich in essential nutrients, is an effective alternative for mineral fertilizers. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of digestate application on chemical properties and maize grain yield. Field experiment was established during year 2018 on eight different fertilization treatments: control treatment without fertilization, mineral fertilizer (MF), liquid cattle manure, solid fraction of digestate (SFD), liquid fraction of digestate (LFD), digestate, a mixture of MF+SFD, a mixture of MF+LFD. Nitrogen content in grains was positively correlated with proteins (99.93%) and zein (73.91%) content. In addition, the results showed that only the LFD and digestate treatments had a positive correlation between the N content in the grains and the starch content. Statistically higher grain yield was observed on MF (13.1 t ha-1), MF+SFD (11.2 t ha-1) and MF+LFD (12.2 t ha-1) treatments compared to others. Digestate showed positive effect on chemical properties of the maize grain.
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