Effect of alum and liquid alum on pH, EC, moisture, ammonium and soluble phosphorus contents in poultry litter during short term: A laboratory experiment

Aluminum sulfate (alum, [Al2(SO4)3. 14H2O]) additions to poultry litter can be used effectively as litter amendments, which can lead to greatly reduce ammonia emissions and phosphorus solubility in the poultry industry. However, there are little studies which compare the effects of alum and liquid alum with respect to the environmental effects of poultry litter. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of alum and liquid alum on pH, EC, moisture, ammonium and soluble phosphorus contents from poultry litter during 3 weeks. The treatments were mixed in the upper 1 cm of litter, which included 3.5 g alum, 5.5 g alum, 7.5 g alum, 8 g liquid alum, 13 g liquid alum, and 17 g liquid alum/100 g litter. The litter pH was much lower (P 0.05) for alum and liquid alum-treated litter than those of untreated litter. Moisture contents for all treatments at 0 and 2 weeks affect (P 0.05), but there were no significantly differences among all treatments at 1 and 3 weeks. Application of alum and liquid alum with the different rates increased EC, ammonium, and decreased soluble reactive phosphorus (ranging from 30% to 85.4%) when compared to the controls. These results indicate that using one of the several techniques, acidification, litter amendments would be an alternative option for holding litter NH4 and reducing soluble reactive P by lowering litter pH.