The Effects of Biochar and Its Combination with Compost on Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) Growth, Soil Properties, and Soil Microbial Activity and Abundance

Table 2

Soil chemical properties. Data represent the mean () ± standard error. Mean values marked with the same letter are not statistically different. One-way ANOVA was applied to weigh the effects of different treatments ().

	PS	PSB	PSC	PSCB
pH	6.9 ± 0.2	8.0 ± 0.0	7.5 ± 0.0	7.7 ± 0.0
Alkalinity (% CaCO3)	7.7 ± 0.4	5.9 ± 0.5	6.4 ± 0.3	7.1 ± 0.4
EC (dS/m)	0.71 ± 0.0	1.0 ± 0.0	1.3 ± 0.1	1.5 ± 0.0
Moisture (g/kg)	63.0 ± 1.6	58.8 ± 0.3	61.8 ± 0.9	47.0 ± 2.1
Ash (%)	93.8 ± 0.2	90.0 ± 0.5	90.8 ± 0.7	86.0 ± 0.3
N (g/kg)	0.8 ± 0.0	1.2 ± 0.0	1.9 ± 0.2	2.2 ± 0.0
P (mg/kg)	199.9 ± 9.9	376.6 ± 52.3	455.6 ± 33.3	471.0 ± 1.3
P (mg/kg)	<12.0 ± 0.0	<12.0 ± 0.0	24.9 ± 3.9	58.3 ± 4.5
C (g/kg)	12.8 ± 0.5	59.1 ± 0.0	29.1 ± 0.8	65.9 ± 2.2
CEC (cmol/kg)	39.3 ± 0.0	40.4 ± 0.0	39.9 ± 0.0	43.6 ± 0.0

PS: unfertilized soil.
PSB: unfertilized soil plus biochar.
PSC: compost fertilized soil.
PSCB: compost fertilized soil plus biochar.