Castor Bean Meal Fertilizer Improves Peanut Yield and Quality by Regulating the Soil Physicochemical Environment and Soil Enzyme Activities

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Fertilization is important for improving crop yield and soil quality. Elucidation of the effects of castor bean meal (CBM) fertilizer on peanut yield and quality and soil fertility can lead to additional fertilization options for peanut and provide a theoretical reference for achieving a high-quality, high-yielding peanut. Methods During 2022–2023, a two-year long-term field experiment was conducted in Tongliao city, Inner Mongolia, China. No fertilizer (CK) was used as the control, and the effects of different treatments, i.e., CBM fertilizer (B1: 2520 kg ha-1, B2: 5040 kg ha-1, and B3: 10,080 kg ha-1), chemical fertilizer alone (F1: 175 kg ha-1, F2: 350 kg ha-1, and F3: 700 kg ha-1), and cow manure alone (N1: 3724 kg ha-1, N2: 7448 kg ha-1, and N3: 14,896 kg ha-1) on peanut yield and quality and soil fertility were investigated. Results The results showed that CBM fertilizer application improved soil ecology. Compared with other fertilization treatments, the soil pH of B3 treatment decreased by 8.5%, but significantly increased the contents of organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen (AN), basic phosphorus (AP) and rapidly available potassium (AK) in the soil, which increased by 86.4%, 64.6%, 70.5%, 11.3%, 75.8%, 150.1%, and 116.2%, respectively, compared with CK. Meanwhile, B1, B2, N1 and N2 treatments also led to the elevation of the above indexes. In addition, the activities of urease (URE), sucrase (SUC), phosphatase (PPL), catalase (CAT), amylase (AMY) and protease (PRO) in the B3 treatment were significantly greater than those in the other fertilization treatments, with increases of 256.4%, 248.4%, 68.2%, 96.8%, 267.3%, and 155.7%, respectively, compared with CK. The B3 treatment also significantly increased the rootlet length(PRL), number of branches(BN), plant height(PLH) and lateral branch length(LBL) of the peanut plants. Compared with the other treatments, the B3 treatment had a greater peanut yields, reaching 8059.5 kg ha-1 and 9935.7 kg ha-1 in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Compared with the other treatments, the B1 treatment significantly increased the contents of protein (Pro), fat (FAT), unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) and vitamin E (VE), which increased by 23.3%, 6.1%, 1.0%, 29.1%, respectively, compared with CK, but the total sugar (TS) content was reduced by 9.1%. Correlation analysis further confirmed that peanut yield and quality were significantly correlated with soil nutrients and enzyme activities. Conclusions This study showed that the application of CBM fertilizer has certain positive effects. For example, the B3 treatment has certain potential for increasing peanut yield, and the B1 treatment can be used for peanut quality improvement. Therefore, CBM fertilizer is recommended as a new type of organic fertilizer for improving the peanut quality and yield.