Integrated Effect of Filter Mud Cake Combined with Chemical and Biofertilizers to Enhance Potato Growth and Its Yield

The excessive uses of chemical fertilizers create hazardous environmental effects and unsafe food. Inversely, organic fertilizer usage has an advantage of being cheap, improving soil properties, and stimulating root development. The effect of filter mud cake (FMC) as an organic fertilizer and potassium sulfate as a chemical fertilizer (CF), either individually or combined with biofertilizers on potato growth and its yield as well as soil fertility, were evaluated. Field treatments were assigned in a completely randomized block (CRB) for two consecutive years with three replicates. Our results showed that all treatments resulted in an increase in the electrical conductivity (EC) and soil organic matter compared to the control one. The addition of CF alone significantly increased the availability of N, P, and K by 54.72, 2.52, and 32.94%, respectively, over the control treatment. The corresponding values were 94.31, 36.89, and 71.54% using 100% FMC dose (FMC 100 ). Total fresh and dry yields were significantly increased by 143.97 and 187.66%, respectively, for FMC 100 addition compared to the control. The utmost relative increase in the large-size tubers was recorded with FMC 100 (2.34 times) while the highest increase of the medium-size ones (97.26%) was observed with CF 100 in comparison to the other treatments. Besides biofertilizers, the individual addition of FMC and its combination with CF realized a positive effect on soil fertility, potato growth, and its yield.