ABSTRACT Soil nutrient depletion and quality are critical challenges facing agriculture and have been exacerbated by the long‐term use of chemical fertilisers. A 14‐week pot experiment was conducted, with nepheline‐syenite tailings (NST) serving as the sole non‐nitrogen nutrient source for wheat, to determine the potential of NST to improve the soil nutrient status. The impact of NST on plant health was examined at five application rates (0, 1.25, 5, 10, and 20 g/kg of artificial soil). At the end of the experiments the pH, major and trace elements (e.g., Ca, Mg, P, S, K, Fe, Mn, Zn, Si, Cu, Mo) in both the rhizosheath and the bulk soil, and wheat biomass (both above and belowground) were measured, and used to calculate nutrient uptake. These parameters generally increased with higher NST application rates. Wheat biomass increased with increasing NST doses up to 10 g/kg of artificial soil. Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) such as Al, As, Sr, Rb, and Ba increased in the soil; however, their concentrations remained 52.5% to 91.7% below the world soil average, suggesting minimal environmental risk. The P and K nutrient use efficiency (NUE) decreased with increasing application, indicating that NUE may not be effective for evaluating slow‐releasing amendments where the elemental totals do not represent the bioavailable fraction. The findings improve our understanding of how NST can be used to enhance soil fertility and agricultural yield, providing valuable insights for its effective use as soil amendments, particularly in regions with readily available silicate rocks of this type and nutrient‐depleted soils.
Apori et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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