Efficiency of surface composting of tobacco dust using microbial mixtures

Abstract

Abstract. Tobacco dust is the main waste in the production of smoking products. The purpose is to study the possibility of tobacco dust utilization by surface composting together with microbial mixtures “Stimiks Kompost”, “Probioks Agro” and “Geostim”, directly in the field conditions, contributing to the restoration of soil fertility. Methods. In the years of research (2020–2021) tobacco dust was applied in doses of 5 and 8 t/ha in pure form and together with microbiological preparations. Scientific novelty. The method of using tobacco production waste as a fertilizer together with microbiological preparations is proposed. Results. It was established that for 30–60 days, tobacco dust application together with destructors, the content of basic nutrient elements in the soil increased: ammonium nitrogen form by 65–207 %, nitrate nitrogen by 83–225 %, available phosphorus by 21–107 %, exchangeable potassium by 80–194 %. Also Increasing of soil biological activity indicators was determined. The process of nitrifying ability of soil increases by 70–194 %, cellulose-destroying activity of microorganisms increases by 27–133 %, the amount of produced CO2 from soil increases by 61–129 %. The content of organic matter (humus) increases up to 4.2–5.5 % for the period of counting (4.0–4.7 % on the reference). Increase of moisture-holding capacity of soils in variants of experiment with tobacco dust and destructors was established (soil moisture for the period of research amounted to 18.4–25.5 %, in control – 17.1–18.7 %). The best results for surface composting of tobacco dust were obtained under wet conditions in 2021 (Hydrothermal coefficient (HTC) = 1.38), in 2020 HTC = 0.87. Mycological analysis revealed a decrease in soil infestation with pathogenic micro-mycetes in the variants of the experiment with tobacco waste. The increase in yield of bitter pepper (variety Baraniy rog) on the background of a mixture of tobacco dust and biodegraders amounted to 12–32 % (2020), seed cucumber (variety Dal’nevostochnyy 27) – 20–33 %.