THE INFLUENCE OF LAKE SEDIMENTS ON SANDY LOAM SOIL PROPERTIES AND CROP YIELD

In the silty Lithuanian lakes about 1.5 milliard m(3) of sediments are accumulated. These sediments represent a valuable organic matter, which can be used for fertilization and improving of soil. In order to study the possibilities of their application for improvement of an infertile environmental object soil: sandy loam cambisol (CM), experiments were carried out at the Yoke Branch of Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry. Investigations on the effectiveness of organic lake sediments were conducted on background material containing no mineral fertilizers and with minimum rate of N30-60P30-40K50-60 fertilizers in 1999-2009. The obtained results verified that soil fertilization with various rates of organic lake sediments and its mixtures with manure and sewage influenced the productivity of crop rotation. The higher rate of organic (40 t ha(-1)) sediments increased the contents of total nitrogen and humus in soil. Fertilization with mineral fertilizers compensated the amounts of mobile phosphorus and potassium, which are needed for plants to grow. The application of sediments positively influenced the physical properties of sandy loam cambisols. The organic sediments increased the humidity and porosity and reduced the soil density.