Technical note: Design of a pot experiment to study the effect of irrigation with diluted winery wastewater on four differently textured soils

Abstract

Due to the intensification of environmental legislation, the wine industry is expected to find solutions for the treatment or re-use of winery wastewater. The objective of the study was to design and evaluate a pot experiment for determining the effects of irrigation with diluted winery wastewater on different soils. Four pedogenetically different soils were included in the experiment, i.e., (i) alluvial sand containing 3.3% clay from Rawsonville, (ii) aeolic sand containing 0.4% clay from Lutzville, (iii) shale-derived soil containing 20% clay from Stellenbosch, and (iv) granite-derived soil containing 13% clay from Stellenbosch. The pot experiment was carried out under a rain shelter at ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij. Soils were packed in 3.54 dm 3 PVC pots to a bulk density of 1 400 kg/m 3. The four soils were irrigated using winery wastewater that was diluted to 3 000 mg/L COD. Municipal water was used to irrigate the control treatment of each soil.

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