Asta Strėlkutė, Jolita Bradulienė

Viability and Length of Above-Ground Part of White Clover in Polluted Soil

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Abstract

Dustiness on gravel roads and slippery in winter is reduced through the application of various dustiness and slippery minimization materials, most frequently – calcium chloride. However, global efforts have been intensified to find new effective materials making the least possible damage to the environmental components. Some of them is molasses based material and bishophit (technical magnesium chloride with additives). The investigations described in this paper were carried out by means of the method on the growth of grass vegetation in the contaminated soil. The aim of these investigations is to determine the impact of material for the road maintenance on the viability of herbaceous vegetation and the length of above-ground part. One herbaceous plant species have been selected for the investigations: white clover (L. Trifolium trepens). This species often grow on the roadsides of roads and are used for the recultivation of nearby pastures. Investigations shows that after 4 weeks growing, white clover germinated in polluted soil: with molasses based material (10%, 20%, 30%) viability was 76–87%, with mixture of molasses based material (10%, 20%, 30%) and calcium chloride (36.5%) was 0%, with bishophit (9, 12, 46 ml) was 1%. Greatest length of above-ground part was determined in soil polluted with 10% molasses based material. Length was 4.10 cm.

Keywords: white clover, molasses based material, calcium chloride, bishophit, polluted soil.