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MOLINA, Louis L. Topic Proposal

10 - Electron | El-18 10 Dec. 2020

Proposed Title: Efficiency Of Seaweed Ash Application on the Soil Properties of Acidic
Soil and Plant Growth of Solano Lycopersicum

Problem Statement:

Decades-long farming and improper fertilizer use has acidified the agricultural soils of
Benguet, the nation’s top vegetable producer, decreasing vegetable yield and posing a threat to
the livelihood of many farmers. To combat acidity, farmers apply powdered lime to neutralize
the soil; however, repetitive use tends to harden it (Lapniten, 2017). A possible alternative
treatment to acidic soil is seaweed, which, according to (Hooper, 1856) can be processed to
yield an impure form of sodium carbonate, an alkaline substance which shows potential in
alleviating soil acidity. However, the effect of seaweed ash to acidic agricultural soil and to
plant growth it is still unknown. There is no present knowledge whether it will fare as well as
conventional soil acidity treatments like lime.

Objectives:

The project’s main objective is to determine the effectiveness (in terms of soil pH increase and
tomato plant growth) of the application of seaweed ash in treating acidic soil in order to
ascertain the feasibility of its use as an alternative to lime, which is known to harden soil over
time.

Specifically, the project aims to find out the change in the pH level of the seaweed ash-amended
acidic soil in comparison to the pH change in the lime set-up. Additionally, the project aims to
know the resulting plant height, size and no. of tomatoes, and biomass of the tomato plants
grown in seaweed ash-amended soil as compared to the other tomato plants which were grown
on lime-amended soil. Lastly, the project aims to the determine the performance of the
different application rates of seaweed ash in terms of the said growth characteristics of the plant
and the resulting soil pH change to determine which rate is optimal in alleviating soil acidity
and promoting plant growth.

Proposed Methodology:

To reach the stated objectives, an experimental study will be conducted. There will be 7 pot
set-ups in the project that will be divided into two; a seaweed ash treatment, and a lime
treatment, with both treatments each having three application rates while one set-up being the
control. To obtain seaweed ash, collected seaweed from the shore will be dried and then burnt
in a clay jar. This procedure is consistent with the method of turning kelp and seaweed into
soda ash back in 18th century Scotland (King, 2018). Meanwhile, to obtain lime, packets of the
material will be bought on Shopee. The experimental design will be mostly based on the
experiment of Wu et al., 2020 in which they compared the efficacy of lime and biochar
treatments on acidic soil and to the yield of Satsuma mandarin. The application rate of lime
will be consistent with the rate used in the mentioned study, which were 1.2, 2.4, and 3.6 g/kg
soil while the application rate of seaweed ash will roughly amount to the rate of biochar used;
10, 20, 40 g/kg soil. A soil pH tester that will be bought from Shopee will be used to gather
soil that has a pH level less than 4. The obtained soil will be mixed altogether to make the
overall pH level equal before being transferred into the pots that will be applied with lime and
seaweed ash. A week after the application of the treatments, if there is an observable change in
the pH level of the acidic soil, only then will the tomato seedlings be grown. If there is none,
the application rates shall be modified accordingly. After 2-2.5 months, by which the tomato
plants would have already matured (McGee, 2020), the soil pH in each pot will be recorded a
second time as well as the growth indicators of the plants; plant height (in cm), size of tomatoes
(diameter in cm), no. of tomatoes, and biomass, which will be obtained by dehydrating the
plant in an oven and weighing it. The results will then be compared and shall be evaluated.

References:

Fontanilla, G. J. (2015, April 9). Farmers battling soil acidity. SunStar Philippines.
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/3001/Business/Farmers-battling-soil-acidity.

Hooper, R. (1856). U.S. National Library of Medicine. Harper & Brothers.

https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101526718-bk.

Lapniten, K. (2020, March 7). Soil going bad for Benguet vegetable farms. Inquirer.net.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1237989/soil-going-bad-for-benguet-vegetable-farms.

McGee, K. (2020, June 16). How Many Days From Seeds to Tomato Plants? Home Guides |
SF Gate. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/many-days-seeds-tomato-plants-56852.html.

Philippine Statistics Authority. (2017). 2016 Crop Production. psa.gov.ph.

http://rssocar.psa.gov.ph/crops/2016%20Crop%20Production%3A%20Cabbage%2C%
20Carrot%20and%20Potato.

Towrie, S. (2018). Kelp Burning in Orkney. Orkneyjar: the heritage of the Orkney Islands.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/kelpburning.htm.

Wu, S., Zhang, Y., Tan, Q., Sun, X., Wei, W., & Hu, C. (2020). Biochar is superior to lime in
improving acidic soil properties and fruit quality of Satsuma mandarin. Science of The
Total Environment, 714, 136722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136722 .