Laboratory study using paper mill lime mud for agronomic benefit

Annual ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is an important cool-season forage grass in the southeastern US. Since large portions of soils in this region are too acidic for optimum ryegrass production, there exists an opportunity to use lime mud waste from numerous regional pulp and paper mills as an agricultural liming material. In this study, four lime mud application rates, 2.25 (L₁), 4.51 (L₂), 9.01 (L₃), and 22.50 (L₄) ton ha⁻¹, dry weight basis, and a control (L₀) were evaluated for response to ryegrass growth during the first 6 weeks to estimate an optimum application range over the testing soil for future field test. Results indicated that applied lime mud slowed ryegrass germination and seedling emergence, with differences of whole plant length among treatments L₀–L₄ significant only during the first three weeks. Differences of whole plant dry weight among treatments L₀–L₄ reduced thereafter. The initial soil pH increase due to the lime mud application dropped in treatments L₁–L₄ by the end of the 6-week experiment. The optimum lime mud application range was estimated between L₂ and L₃, which provided higher ryegrass yields (kg ha⁻¹) of 84 and 80 over 77 of the control and complied with the Code of Federal Regulation, CFR 40 Part 503 for land application.