Examining the Effects of Diluted Seawater Amendment on Annual Ryegrass

Yields

Edward A. Davis
SOIL260
Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA

Abstract A study exploring the benefits of diluted seawater on annual ryegrass production
was conducted using a silty clay loam soil from Humboldt County, California. Different
combinations of fertilizer (N, P, K) treatments were applied to the soil, both with and without
seawater amendment. Plants were grown for 5 weeks and harvested to examine differences in
crop yields. The results were examined statistically using ANOVA and extrapolated to
determine economic viability.

Introduction
The purpose of this report is to quantify the effects of diluted seawater amendment on the yield
of annual ryegrass. Lolium multiflorum, known as annual ryegrass or Italian ryegrass, is a cold-
resistant crop often grown in pastures alongside other cereals for dairy forage (Luo et al., 2017).
Due in part to its cold resistance, it is also grown as a winter cover crop for soil building, weed
suppression and erosion control (Clark, 2010).
Diluted seawater provides several plant essential nutrients, such as chlorine, magnesium,
potassium, and calcium (Miller et al., 2013). Miller et al. (2013) provide instructions for how to
collect, prepare and amend crops with diluted seawater in accordance with Natural Farming.
Natural Farming is an approach to agriculture that avoids manufactured inputs and equipment
(Fukuoka, 2009). Our study did not take this approach, and instead observed the effects of
seawater when used in conjunction with different chemical fertilizers. We hypothesized that the
addition of seawater would significantly increase the yield of the ryegrass crop.

Methods and Materials

Annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) was produced in a total of 176 four-inch pots each
filled with 400 ± 0.1 g of silty clay loam soil from a pasture on Leavey Ranch near Arcata, CA
(Table 1). The soil used in the experiment was collected from 0-15 cm depth. Half of the samples
were treated with of seawater collected from Moonstone Beach and half received no seawater
treatment (Table 2). The following nutrient amendments were applied to randomly assigned
samples: ammonium nitrate (N), triple super phosphate (P), potassium chloride (K), and
combinations of the 3 fertilizers (Table 2). These amendments were made in varying amounts to
simulate fertilizer application over a large area (Table 3). 11 total replicates were made.
 Sand/Silt/Clay Color Db pH Organic Matter
(Bouyoucos) (Munsell) (Coated Clod) (LaMotte) (LOI)
Dry: 2.5Y 7/1
8% - 57% - 35% 1.52 g/cm3 6.34 4.22%
Moist: 2.5Y 3/2

Table 1: Physical properties of Leavey Ranch soil used for seawater amendment experiment.

Seawater (+) Seawater (-)

N N
P P
K K
NK NK
NP NP
PK PK
NPK NPK
Control Control

Table 2: List of treatments of fertilizers applied to individual samples. Seawater (+) denotes the
half of the samples that received seawater application. Combinations of each of the 3 fertilizers
are denoted by multiple letter abbreviations (i.e. NP indicates ammonium nitrate and potassium
chloride).

Approx.
Fertilizer Chemical Amount
Nutrient N-P-K Amount per
Name Formula per Pot
Hectare
N Ammonium 33.5-0-0 NH4NO3 0.05 g 100 kg/ha
Nitrate
P Triple Super 0-45-0 Ca(H2PO4)2 0.04 g 75 kg/ha
Phosphate
K Potassium 0-0-60 KCl 0.03 g 75 kg/ha
Chloride

Table 3: Fertilizer information: Amount per Pot is ± 0.01 g. N-P-K is the relative abundances of
N, P, or K in each fertilizer.

Each soil was combined with the assigned nutrient treatments and then returned to the 4-
inch pot with a filter paper at the bottom. Each pot then received 2.00 ± 0.1 g of annual ryegrass
seeds, pushed approximately 0.5 cm below the surface of the soil. Designated samples received
0.11 mL seawater, applied at the soil surface. Pots were then placed in saucers filled with tap
water until the surface of the soils were moist. Samples were then placed in the Forestry
Greenhouse at Humboldt State University in a random pattern. The plants were rotated weekly
and watered as needed. After 5 weeks, the ryegrass was harvested. The plants were trimmed 0.5
cm above the soil surface, weighed, and placed in a clean paper bag. The bag of clippings was
then placed in an oven at 65ºC for 48 hours to dry. After drying, the clippings were weighed
again. To determine the efficacy of the diluted seawater amendment, Analysis of variance tests
were conducted for the samples using NCSS.

Results and Discussion

After five weeks of growth, a simple visual inspection of the ryegrass plants showed that the
average length of shoots was shorter in seawater amended samples compared to those that did
not receive the amendment. Phosphorus and potassium amendments, regardless of seawater
amendment, yielded smaller plants that were less green. All samples that received amendments
containing nitrogen yielded significantly more in samples with and without seawater amendment,
with a combination of nitrogen and potassium yielding the tallest, greenest grass (Figure 1).

Means of No_Seawater_Yield Means of Seawater_Yield

4.60 4.40

4.25 4.05
No_Seawater_Yield

Seawater_Yield

3.90 3.70

3.55 3.35

3.20 3.00
K N NK NP NPK P PK control K N NK NP NPK P PK control
No_Seawater_Treatment Seawater_Treatment

Figure 1: Comparison of means of ryegrass yields without and with seawater amendment.

A Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison test for both seawater-treated and non-seawater-

treated groups showed similar results to the visual comparison (Tables 4 and 5). NPK and NP
amendments were the only treatments that yielded significantly (α = 0.05) more than the control
group regardless of seawater amendment. This consistency shows the ryegrass’s preference for
nitrogen but does not provide evidence for the efficacy of seawater amendment.
 Tukey-Kramer Multiple-Comparison Test (Seawater -)

Alpha=0.050 Error Term=S(A) DF=78 MSE=0.2677246 Critical Value=4.4049

Different From
Group Count Mean Groups
control 13 3.248461 NK, NPK, NP
K 10 3.288 NK, NPK, NP
PK 10 3.4 NK, NPK, NP
P 11 3.42 NK, NPK, NP
N 13 3.870769
NK 10 4.135 control, K, PK, P
NPK 9 4.443333 control, K, PK, P
NP 10 4.475 control, K, PK, P

Table 4: Tukey-Kramer comparison test for samples not containing diluted seawater
amendment.
Tukey-Kramer Multiple-Comparison Test (Seawater +)

Different From
Group Count Mean Groups
PK 12 3.0025 NK, N, NPK, NP
control 11 3.27 N, NPK, NP
K 12 3.308333 N, NPK, NP
P 11 3.455455 NPK, NP
NK 10 3.984 PK
N 11 4.132727 PK, control, K
NPK 12 4.164166 PK, control, K, P
NP 12 4.375 PK, control, K, P

Table 5: Tukey-Kramer comparison test for samples containing diluted seawater amendment.

When we compared the overall yield of seawater amended samples to those that did not
receive the treatment, we did not see a significant (α = 0.05) increase in those that received the
seawater treatment (Figure 2). An ANOVA test showed that the results of this study had a
probability of 0.64. The seawater treatment showed a slight decline in yield, but this was not
significant at α = 0.05.
 Means of Yield
3.76

3.75

Yield
3.73

3.72

3.70
With sea Without
Sea_Water

Figure 2: Plot showing the mean yields of annual ryegrass with and without diluted seawater
amendment.

When our team compared the yields for each individual treatment in terms of profit and
loss, we found some treatments to be more economically viable than others. We extrapolated the
cost of fertilizer and seed for a 1-hectare area and compared that to the market price for annual
ryegrass hay (Table 6). We found that fertilizing with nitrogen and phosphorous (without
seawater) showed the most economic benefit, yielding a profit of $853.62 per hectare. Our
calculations showed a net loss (-$320.15 per hectare) when amending with phosphorous,
potassium and seawater. The greatest yield when seawater was added came again from nitrogen
and phosphorous fertilizer, netting $757.80 per hectare in profit.

N P K NP NK PK NPK

Seawater (+) $624.05 $85.83 -$6.70 $757.80 $465.62 -$320.15 $543.47

Seawater (-) $432.40 $69.86 -$6.70 $853.62 $609.36 $15.24 $783.03

Table 6: Net profit/loss comparison for different treatment groups. Values are per hectare,
accounting for cost of amendment and market value of annual ryegrass hay.

Conclusions
When comparing the yields of all of the treatments and whether seawater had a marked benefit to
ryegrass production, we did not have enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis. This suggests
that for this particular crop and soil combination, seawater amendment does not appear to be
economically viable.
There are a number of things that were not feasible to incorporate into our study. Miller
et al. (2013) observed a benefit of diluted seawater when used in accordance with Natural
Farming. This was not possible for this study, as we used collected soil and chemical fertilizers.
Another drawback to the design of our study was the soil used. The soil from Leavey Ranch was
a silty clay loam, which does not have ideal drainage characteristics for annual ryegrass
production (Clark, 2010). Additionally, annual ryegrass is a high nitrogen user, and seawater
amendment may not have provided enough of a boost of this nutrient to see significant increase
(Clark, 2010).
There are numerous opportunities for further research on the viability of diluted seawater
amendment with different crops and soil types.

References Cited
Clark, A. (2010). Managing cover crops profitably. College Park, MD: SARE.

Fukuoka, M. (2009). The one-straw revolution: an introduction to natural farming. New York
Review of Books.

Luo, J., Wyatt, J., Weerden, T. J., Thomas, S. M., Klein, C. A., Li, Y., . . . Rys, G. (2017).
Potential Hotspot Areas of Nitrous Oxide Emissions From Grazed Pastoral Dairy Farm
Systems. Advances in Agronomy, 205-268. doi:10.1016/bs.agron.2017.05.006

Miller, S. A., Ikeda, D. M., Chang, K. C. S., McGinn, J. M., Weinert, E., & DuPonte, M. W.
(2013). Natural farming: diluted seawater. Sustainable Agriculture.