THE USE OF DIGESTATE AS A REPLACEMENT OF MINERAL FERTILIZERS FOR VEGETABLES GROWING

The effect of anaerobically fermented pig slurry as a fertilizer on the quantitative parameters of two kinds of tomatoes and five kinds of peppers was assessed by the use of pot trials. These trials were carried out over a period of five years. Each trial involved four treatments, namely (a) control without fertilization, (b) fertilization with mineral fertilizers, (c) 50% nutrients in mineral fertilizers and 50% in fermented pig slurry, and (d) fertilization only with fermented pig slurry. Besides yield parameters in kg and in the number of fruit pieces, the dry matter content of vegetables was also monitored. A statistically significant influence of the year was found in the case of the yield and dry matter content parameters. The influence of cultivar was not found. The positive effect of the use of digestate was mainly seen in the case of combined method. The results showed that anaerobically fermented pig slurry can be a suitable alternative to the use of mineral fertilizer