S P Vista1, A K Mukherjee2, D K Das3 and D Saha3
1Soil Science Division, NARC, Khumaltar
2Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand
3Department of Agril. Chemistry and Soil Science, BCKV, West Bengal
Abstract
Iron ore slime is the waste product of iron and steel industries which has the particle size of below 150mm and is being discarded as waste during the mining and processing stages of iron ore. An experiment was conducted under green house condition to evaluate iron slime as an amendment for growing cabbage during 2012-2013.Low grade iron ore slimes were collected from Tata Steel, Jamshedpur and used as soil amendment in different ratio. Six treatments were replicated four times and all necessary observations were taken. Destructive sampling was followed. Soil and plant samples were tested for both macro and micronutrients. Results revealed that mixing of soil with iron slime in different proportions might be useful in augmenting soil nutrient status as well as improvement of organic carbon content in the amended soil. Amongst the primary nutrients, higher concentration of P was observed in both soil and plant. The total micronutrients content especially Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn were found to be of higher order in Cabbage grown in sole iron slime and iron slime treated soil. The total Fe content in cabbage was found directly proportional to the amount of added iron slime. From this investigation, it is clear that iron slime can be utilized for agricultural purpose for raising cabbage but at adequate proportion of iron slime and soil.
Keywords: Iron slime, soil amendment, macro and micronutrients, cabbage, etc