Chemical attributes of soil irrigated with treated sewage effluent and cultivated with bell pepper

Abstract

The use of treated sewage effluents (TSE) for irrigation purposes is a viable alternative for wastewater reuse and nutrient supply to the soil, which represent the two main environmental benefits. This work therefore evaluated the effect of the application of TSE on the quantity of nutrients added to the soil and changes in the chemical attributes of a Red-Yellow Latosol in the layer from 0.0 to 0.2 m cultivated with the bell pepper F1 Canary hybrid and surface drip irrigated. The experiment was carried out under field conditions from September 2015 to January 2016 in a randomized block statistical design with four replications, including the following treatments: river water, TSE, river water with base fertilization, TSE with base fertilization, TSE with cover fertilization, and TSE with cover and base fertilization. Irrigation of the bell pepper cultivation with TSE increased the level of potassium but did not affect the levels of phosphorus, organic matter and pH of the soil at the end of the growing cycle. The following amounts of nutrients were added to the soil by irrigation with TSE: 10 kg ha^-1 of total nitrogen, 10 kg ha^-1 of total potassium and 0.5 kg ha^-1 of total phosphate. In general, TSE induced greater productivity of the peppers than those irrigated with river water, even when including mineral fertilization.