Effects of Different Biochar and Rapeseed Cake Ratios on the Soil Nutrient, Yield and Quality of Flue-cured Tobacco

Purpose This study was to clarify the function of different biochar and rapeseed cake ratios on the growth of flue-cured tobacco, soil improvement and fertility increasing, and to improve the yield and quality of flue-cured tobacco.

Method A field experiment was conducted using YN99 as test material to research the effect of different biochar and rapeseed cake on soil nutrients, agronomic characters, economic characters and chemical compositions of flue-cured tobacco after baking.

Result Biochar and rapeseed cake could both enhance soil available nutrients and the combination treatment showed better improvement on the basis of regular fertilization. The application of biochar and rapeseed cake could also increase the average price and output value significantly, while the average price and output value increased gradually with the increase of rapeseed cake fertilizer. The application of biochar and rapeseed cake fertilizer could improve the chemical compositions of flue-cured tobacco significantly. There were increases in the contents of total nitrogen, potassium, reducing sugar and the ratio of sugar to nicotine, the ratio of nitrogen to nicotine and decreases in the contents of starch and nicotine.

Conclusion The application of biochar 750 kg/hm² and rapeseed cake 1 500 kg/hm² showed the best effect on the basis of regular fertilization, which could improve the economic benefits and quality of flue-cured tobacco.