The use of composting technology is attractive to NASA’s Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) research because it offers a potential reduction in system costs when compared to other waste recycling approaches. Water-soluble leachates from 28-day composted fresh or oven-dried inedible wheat biomass were amended with reagent-grade nutrients to be inorganically equivalent to ½-strength Hoagland’s (control) replenishment solution. A portion of the fresh and oven-dried compost leachate was filtered to remove large organic particles and a majority of the microflora, and wheat plants were grown hydroponically on these amended leachates. For both the fresh and oven-dried compost leachate treatments, filtering the leachate had no effect on plant response. No significant difference was observed between the fresh compost leachate treatments and the control. However, growing wheat plants on the oven-dried compost leachate treatments showed significant reductions in growth compared to the control. These results suggest that the additional microbial loading and organic particulates are not responsible for previous observations of reduced growth for plants grown on compost leachates. Additionally, 28 days is sufficient to remove any phytotoxic properties from fresh compost, however a longer composting time may be necessary for composting oven-dried composter feed material.


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    Title :

    Utilization of Recovered Inorganic Nutrients From Composted Fresh or Oven-Dried Inedible Plant Biomass for Supporting Growth of Wheat in a BLSS


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers



    Conference:

    31st International Conference On Environmental Systems ; 2001



    Publication date :

    2001-07-09




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




    Utilization of Recovered Inorganic Nutrients From Composted Fresh or Oven-Dried Inedible Plant Biomass for Supporting Growth of Wheat in a BLSS

    Yorio, N. C. / Judkins, J. E. / Garland, J. L. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001


    The Utilization of Recovered Nutrients from Composted Inedible Wheat Biomass to Support Plant Growth for BLSS

    Garland, Jay L. / Ruffe, Lisa M. / Alazraki, Michael P. et al. | SAE Technical Papers | 1999


    The Utilization of Recovered Nutrients from Composted Inedible Wheat Biomass to Support Plant Growth for BLSS

    Yorio, N. C. / Alazraki, M. P. / Garland, J. L. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999



    Recycling of Inorganic Nutrients for Hydroponic Crop Production Following Incineration of Inedible Biomass

    Bubenheim, D. L. / Wignarajah, K. / Committee on Space Research; Scientific Commission F | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997