Abstract:
Most of soils of Iran are calcareous in nature. The orchard trees are widespread in south of Iran. Sour lemon is
one product of the area and is processed for lemon juice. To evaluate the effect of lemon waste on soil pH and
availability of micronutrients, composite soil samples were collected from 0-40 Cm of the area and analyzed for
physico- chemical properties.
Lemon waste was gathered from processing factory, dried at 70 c and crushed to 1-2 mm size. A statistical
complete randomized design with 4 replicate and 30 treatments were used for evaluation of lemon waste on soil
properties. The treatments were 0, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 PPM of lemon waste which were added to pots
containing 160 go soils and leaved in incubator for 0, 2, 4, 8, and 16 weeks at 27-30 c, pot moisture were kept at
field capacity during the experiment. At dates of 0, 2, 4, 8, and 16 weeks after treatment the treated soils were
sampled and physico-chemical properties were determined.
According the results, the pH of treated soils with lemon waste decrease and organic mater increase slightly with
increase in amount of lemon waste and time of incaution.
The availability of Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, and P in treated soils increased with increasing the amount of lemon waste
and time of incubation.
