Using poultry litter to fertilize longleaf pine plantations for enhanced straw production
January 23, 2021
| Longleaf pinestraw is high-quality landscape mulch that is in large demand in many urban and suburban areas of the Southeastern United States. In many cases, the annual income from pinestraw production is just as important to forestland owners as the value of the standing timber. A three-year study was conducted in an intensively managed longleaf pine plantation located in Kershaw County, SC. The purpose of the project was to compare the pinestraw production between unfertilized trees, trees fertilized with commercial fertilizer (17% N – 17% P2O5 – 17% K2O), and trees fertilized with poultry litter from a turkey grow-out barn. The commercial fertilizer and the poultry litter were applied so as to provide about 90 kg of plant available N (PAN) per hectare. The results of the study indicated that the enhancement of pinestraw production using granular fertilizer and turkey litter was similar. Providing a one-time application of 90 kg PAN/ha increased pinestraw production by 29% over the three-year study. The return on investment ranged from 968% for the granular fertilizer to 1590% for turkey litter. The advantages of using poultry litter were the greater persistence of plant available N and K in the soil, the addition of key minor plant nutrients, a small but sustained increase in soil pH, and a slight increase in cationic exchange capacity. |