Abstract

AN INVESTIGATION OF GROWTH AND YIELD OF HELIANTHUS ANNUUS ON DIESEL CONTAMINATED SOIL AND BIOREMEDIATED DIESEL CONTAMINATED SOIL

K. Sathees Kumar, b, Rajeshwari Sivaraj* and A. Radhakrishna

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the effect of diesel contaminated soil andbioremediated diesel contaminated soil on the growth and yield ofHelianthus annuus L. The diesel contaminated soil was amendedseparately with different ratio of poultry droppings (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2kg).Results show that diesel contamination in soil significantly affected thephysical and chemical properties of soil and also retarded the growthof sunflower. Poultry manure amended with diesel contaminated soilwas able to remedy the effect of the diesel pollution and enhance thegrowth and yield of sunflower. The remediation depends on theamount of poultry droppings used and maximum growth constraintswere seen in 2kg of poultry waste amended with diesel contaminatedsoil. This work has revealed that soil contaminated by diesel maypossibly contain adverse effects on growth and yield of sunflower, but this can be remediatedby addition of natural nutrients particularly poultry waste which acts as a bioremediator andenhances the soil fertility. It has been suggested that bio remediated (poultry manure) dieselcontaminated soil is suitable for crop cultivation.

Keywords: Bioremediation, Diesel oil, Poultry droppings amendments and Sunflower.