Abstract
Rusty soil is a waste from sand filtration of groundwater, but it is improperly disposed of thereby resulting in environmental contamination. Therefore, the possibilities of cleaning up the rusty sand by phytoremediation was examined. However, given that the rusty sand is rich in iron, the possibilities of iron biofortification of crops using sorghum as a model was assessed. Sorghum plants were transferred to treatment (variable mixtures of rusty sand, sand, and manure) and control soils (rusty sand and sand) and concentration of iron was ascertained at six and thirty days after transplanting (DAT). Iron concentration in plant parts were also determined at 30 DAT and soil iron reduction, bioconcentration (BCF) and translocation factors (TF) were computed. Statistical analyses (p < 0.05) showed that the highest considerable reduction in iron was achieved with the positive control that, however, produced a lower iron concentration in plant parts. But plants in 75% three-components mixture had the highest iron concentration in plant parts. Therefore, the 75% three-component mixture was best suited for iron biofortification of vegetative plant parts. The BCF and TF were respectively below and above one (TF in leaf) and phytostabilisation/exclusion and phytoextraction/phytoaccumulation of iron were inferred.