Corn management: can compost help to substitute mineral fertilizers?

(in lingua inglese)

The use of compost to fertilize corn was evaluated. Results showed that compost application could be a viable way to increase soil organic C and N contents and to improve long term soil fertility. The increase in soil organic N is the consequence of reduced mineralization rates of applied organic matter and probably of immobilization of N. As a consequence, N availability to the fertilized crop is reduced, especially in low fertility and poorly-aerated soils. Nitrogen use efficiency of added compost resulted to be variable from 87 to 33 % depending on the pedoclimatic conditions.