Nitrogen and phosphorus release from poultry manure composts: the role of carbonaceous bulking agents and compost particle sizes

Rice hulls and sawdust are commonly used to compost poultry manure in several countries. We studied the effects of these two bulking agents and different sizes of compost particles on the release of N and P from poultry manure composts. Five composts, produced with a 2:1 and 1:1 ratio of sawdust or rice hulls to poultry manure and 1:1:1 of all three materials, were separated into fractions >10, 5–10, 1–5, and <1 mm. The >10-mm fraction was less than 1.5% and was not further analyzed. In all other fractions, pH, electrical conductivity, organic C, lignin, cellulose, and total N, P, Ca, K, and Si were determined and related to N and P release in 16-week incubations of a sandy soil amended with 40 g kg⁻¹ of each fraction. Nitrogen release with composts containing sawdust was higher than with rice hull composts (114–189 vs. 78–127 mg kg⁻¹ at week 16), and this was highly correlated with TN (1.9–3.7% vs. 1.4–2.7%) and negatively with pH (5.5–6.2 vs. 6.7–6.9). Extractable P was very high (85–340 mg kg⁻¹ at week 16), and the highest values were associated with the composts with more proportion of poultry manure. An increase in stability with decreasing particle size was apparent from the gradient of N and P dynamics: from net P release and an exponential pattern of net N mineralization with the coarsest fraction to net P retention and a linear pattern of N mineralization with the smallest one. Despite its higher fertilizer value, the 5- to 10-mm fraction posed the highest environmental risk due to elevated P release over time.