Agronomic performance of tifton 85 (cynodon spp) grass cultivated in constructed wetlands used in milk processing wastewater treatment

Abstract

The present work was carried out in order to study the performance of the tifton 85 (Cynodon spp) grass cultivated in wetlands (SACs) and submitted to different organic load application rates (TCOs) of milk processing wastewater (ARL), in the climatic conditions of Viçosa - MG. The experimental structure was constituted by five SACs with horizontal subsuperficial flow, using tanks of 0.40 x 0.75 x 3.00 m (depth, width and length) filled with 0.33 m depth of fine stones. The ARL was applied in average flow of 60 L.day-1, hydraulic time residence of 4.8 days and TCOs of 66, 130, 190, 320 and 570 kg.ha-1.day-1 of DBO. The tifton 85 grass adapted well to SACs, presenting good rooting, high yield and capacity of nutrients (N, P and K) and sodium removal of the ARL, whose values were, respectively, between 216 - 544, 24 - 61, 115 - 204 and 4.3 – 10.9 kg.ha-1.