Data from: Long-term compost use and high frequency low concentration fertigation reduce N<sub>2</sub>O emissions from a California almond orchard

Metadata Updated: December 2, 2025

Using compost as an agricultural amendment offers a means to reduce organic waste, as mandated by California State Bill 1383. Compost application, through the addition of soil organic matter, leads to improvements in soil physical characteristics and soil organic carbon content. Effects of compost application (7-year duration; 38-dry tonnes ha-1) on soil nitrous oxide (N2O), inorganic nitrogen pools, soil temperature and water content, bulk density and total carbon and N content were examined. Soils were also measured for soil pH, electrical conductivity, and total C and N. These findings were compared to the control, which had not received compost application.The research site was located ∼8 km west of Modesto, California (37˚37′38.17“ N 121˚5′21.57”W), on a 10.5-ha almond orchard (Prunus dulcis, 270 m by 395 m). The orchard was replanted in 2012 with Nonpareil cultivars and interplanted with Aldrich and Carmel cultivars, all grafted on Nemaguard peach rootstock [Prunus persica (L.) Bratsch]. Trees were 4.3 m apart along the row, with 6.4 m between rows, and irrigated by surface drip hose with embedded emitters every 3.7 m (0.07 L min−1).The two treatments, No Compost and Compost (n=3 replicates per treatment), were studied in the growing season (December 2018–August 2019). All other management was consistent between treatments, representing standard practices for the almond industry in this region. The orchard began HFLC nutrient management in 2018, and the total amounts of fertilizer N and irrigation were adjusted in response to anticipated tree demand as determined by the grower. In 2019, orchard received ∼195 kg N ha−1 over 14 fertigation events (March–July, 2019) through a drip irrigation system using HFLC. These 14 fertilization events ranged from 4.5 kg N ha−1 to 28.0 kg ha−1.Findings were compared graphically against other data from 5 other studies examining the effects of irrigation and fertigation practices on N2O. Total cumulative emissions were calculated by date and treatment over the growing season. The effects of sampling date, treatment and area spanning the drip zone were analyzed for N2O, soil temperature and water content, water-filled pore space, ammonium and nitrate.

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Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons CCZero

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Dates

Metadata Created Date	November 2, 2024
Metadata Updated Date	December 2, 2025

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Harvested from USDA JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type	Dataset
Metadata Created Date	November 2, 2024
Metadata Updated Date	December 2, 2025
Publisher	Agricultural Research Service
Maintainer	Steenwerth, Kerri
Identifier	10.15482/USDA.ADC/26155504.v1
Data Last Modified	2025-11-21
Public Access Level	public
Bureau Code	005:18
Metadata Context	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id	87165678-e783-4595-9e28-5e3b538ebfd9
Harvest Source Id	d3fafa34-0cb9-48f1-ab1d-5b5fdc783806
Harvest Source Title	USDA JSON
License	https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Old Spatial	{"type": "Point", "coordinates": -121.089167, 37.636167}
Program Code	005:040
Source Datajson Identifier	True
Source Hash	d8864e9fbcaf1069f7211e8a8bc97c7c4e8bf1ba3bdd2c5281d976b2a6b076c7
Source Schema Version	1.1
Spatial	{"type": "Point", "coordinates": -121.089167, 37.636167}
Temporal	2017-04-20/2019-08-31

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