Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

Spent coffee grounds as organic amendment modify hydraulic properties in T

a sandy loam Brazilian soil
⁎
Maria Eliza Turek, Karllas Stival Freitas, Robson André Armindo
Federal University of Lavras, Av. Norte, DFI-Campus UFLA 37200000, Brazil

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Soil physical and chemical properties can be amended by application of organic residues, such as spent coffee
Lettuce grounds (SCG). In this work we examined SCG effects on the modification of some soil physical-hydraulic
Biowaste properties, such as soil water retention and aeration, investigating beneficial uses for this waste product. Soil
Water content at container capacity properties were evaluated using pots filled with a mixture of a sandy loam soil with the contents of 0, 5, 10, 15
Soil water storage
and 20% of SCG. The most relevant soil properties to the purposes were the moisture at container capacity (θcc),
Drainable porosity
Leaf area index
readily available water capacity (RAWC) and drainable porosity (ϕD). Additionally, under the hypothesis that
SCG can be used as soil conditioner, lettuce crop, cultivar “Mimosa Roxa Roxanne”, was transplanted to the pots
where the leaf area index and the cumulative biomass throughout the growing cycle were examined. Comparing
to the absence of SCG (0%), soil SCG contents of 5, 10, 15 and 20% presented larger values of θcc and conse-
quently larger RAWC and smaller ϕD. Although the increase of soil water storage from 43.2 (0%) to 53.3 (20%)
mm, crop development was prejudiced by the reduction on ϕD from 0.1595 (0%) to 0.0827 (20%) m3 m−3,
which affected soil aeration. This greater water availability, obtained with the increase of θcc, was promoted by
the residue addition pointing out for a possible use of SCG to increase water retention for other crops.

1. Introduction
Besides being currently the world major coffee producer and ex-
porter, Brazil is also the second major consumer of this product, ac-
cording to Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (2017). Such
scenario promotes a huge production on spent coffee grounds (SCG),
generated either by manufacturing soluble coffee or homemade and
commercial consuming, creating a residue without many established
perspectives of reuse, except incineration (Mata et al., 2018). SCG is
generally constituted by small particles (˜20 μm) of an organic material
composed by fibers (> 50%) and complex lignin structures with high
specific surface area (7500 m2 kg−1) (Kim et al., 2014). Because of
these physical properties (small particle size and high specific surface
area), the use of SCG arises as a viable alternative to help water man-
agement in soils with low cohesion, as acidic soils, which are more
susceptible to erosion (Kasongo et al., 2013).
In arid or semiarid regions, where water is a scarce resource or its
availability to the concerning crop is scanty, some practices can be used
to improve water retention and therefore help in water management.
Also, in areas with occurrence of sandy soils or those with large parti-
cles aggregation and hydraulic conductivity, the small specific surface
area associated with other properties leads to adsorption of less water.
Therefore, the use of soil conditioners, which are products from mi-
neral, industrial, or organic origin (e.g., plaster, synthetic polymers, tree
pruning waste and sewage sludge) is an option to decrease the surface
evaporation and water percolation (Moraes et al., 2001). These mate-
rials provide water absorption and increases retention capacity, by thus
modifying the soil physical-hydraulic properties throughout soil depth,
as infiltration and water storage, improving its availability to plants
(Reynolds et al., 2003; Vale et al., 2006).
The quantification of soil available water storage can be performed
based on the moisture at field capacity (θfc) (Cong et al., 2014; Turek
et al. (2018)), or in case of artificially constructed environments, on pot
or container capacity (θcc) (Shimshi, 1963). Field capacity (FC) can be

Abbreviations: SCG, spent coffee grounds; θfc, volumetric water content at field capacity; θcc, volumetric water content at container capacity; Φ, total porosity; ρb,
bulk density; CV, coefficient of variation; RAWC, readily available water capacity; ϕD, drainable porosity range; θg, gravimetric water content; θ, volumetric water
content; ρw, specific mass of water; t, time; tcc, time to reach container capacity content; θr, residual volumetric water content; θpwp, volumetric water content at
permanent wilting point; z, root zone depth; p, average fraction of available water that can be depleted from the root zone before water stress; ETc, crop evapo-
transpiration; ET0, reference evapotranspiration; kc, crop coefficient; LAI, leaf area index
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: robson.armindo@ufla.br (R.A. Armindo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.06.006
Received 19 February 2019; Received in revised form 4 June 2019; Accepted 6 June 2019
Available online 18 June 2019
0378-3774/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M.E. Turek, et al.
Fig. 1. Site location of the soil sampling.
conceptualized as “the amount of water held in the soil after excess
gravitational water has drained away and after the rate of downward
movement of water has materially decreased, which usually takes place
within 2 or 3 days in pervious soils of uniform structure and texture”
(Veihmeyer and Hendrickson, 1931). FC determination, either in situ or
in containers, is performed with an internal drainage experiment,
where soil moisture is raised until saturation allowing free drainage
afterwards until the flux becomes negligible (Romano and Santini,
2002). The considerable difference between θfc and θcc is due to sieved
soil accommodation in containers, which has no horizons and lower
height than the soil profile. Moreover, the atmospheric pressure po-
tential acts on the bore base of containers being responsible for the
quick drainage on the porous media to reach θcc (Casaroli and De Jong
Van Lier, 2008).
Lettuce is one of the most yielded and consumed vegetable in Brazil
(EMBRAPA and SEBRAE, 2010) and presents high hydric demand
(Nunes et al., 2009) generating the need of many farmers investing on
irrigation systems, usually sprinkler irrigation type. These systems
could have benefit with the addition of some soil conditioner, since the
increase of water storage depth might decrease the frequency of irri-
gation. Moreover, in rainfed systems the rainwater availability to plants
in some soils is also enlarged by increasing θfc (or θcc), extending thus
the period without need of water supply.
SCG addition into soils to improve the growing of lettuce plants has
been evaluated in terms of physicochemical soil properties and biolo-
gical plant properties. Gomes et al. (2013) investigated the use of
composted and fresh SCG in the growing of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.),
looking for a content between 2.5 and 20% for fresh SCG, which would
provide the maximum plant growth. They found that both composted
and uncomposted residues provide benefits to lettuce growing, however
some nutrients (foliar-N, -P and K) were reduced by the residue appli-
cation. Cruz et al. (2012) evaluated concentrations of SCG between 0
and 20% on carotenoid and chlorophyll content in lettuce (Lactuca
sativa L. var. capitata). The authors addressed increase of all pigments
according to the increase on SCG content. However, a reduction on
organic nitrogen, proportional to increase on SCG content, was also
noticed pointing to possible induced stress. Cervera-Mata et al. (2017)
analyzed the use of SCG contents from 0 to 10% as soil amendment in
two clayey Mediterranean agricultural soils, also evaluating the effect
on the growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). One of the soils presented
314
Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321
increase in available water with larger SCG content, whereas in the
other it decreased. Also, the limitation to lettuce growth with the
highest concentration of 10% of SCG was identified. Cruz et al. (2014)
examined the antioxidant activity and individual bioactive compounds
of lettuce cultivated with 2.5–30% of fresh and composted SCG. For
fresh compounds, a progressive increment on antioxidant capacity with
the increment of SCG contents was observed. All these studies point for
the potential use of SCG for soil amendment, however, they lack on the
information regarding the effect of SCG in the hydraulic properties of
the soil, and how it can also affect the plant growth.
The objective in this work was to exam the effect of SCG on some
physical soil properties, assessing how it modifies some soil hydraulic
properties, related to water retention and drainable porosity, aiming for
an alternative destination to this large generated biowaste.
Furthermore, under the hypothesis that SCG may be used as a soil
conditioner in a sandy loam soil, the development and cumulative
biomass of lettuce on an artificial porous medium with the character-
istics of this soil were examined.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Soil and site description
The analyses were carried out at Agricultural Science Sector (SCA)
from Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), located at Curitiba-PR,
Brazil. In order to evaluate the conditioner effect of the spent coffee
grounds (SCG) on hydraulic properties of a sandy soil, 75 kg of soil were
collected in a site located near to Lapa city – PR (25° 43′ 13,5″ S 49° 42′
7,5″ W). The disturbed material was collected at the top soil, in the
layer 0–0.3 m depth putting away the vegetal covering at the surface.
The soil is classified as an Entisol (Soil Survey Staff, 1999), not plastic,
not sticky, with color 10YR 2/2. The geological formation of the sam-
pled site is from Itararé Group being at 900 m of altitude, with flat-
undulating relief (Fig. 1).
The textural analysis was carried out based on the Bouyoucos hy-
drometer method (Gee and Or, 2002), obtaining the contents of
0.745 kg kg−1 of sand, 0.105 kg kg−1 of silt and 0.15 kg kg−1 of clay.
Thus, according to the soil textural triangle recommended by the U.S.
Departament of Agriculture (USDA), the textural class of the used soil
was identified as sandy loam (Soil Survey Staff, 1999).
M.E. Turek, et al. Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321

Table 1 and solid particle density, attaining ϕ = 0.5472 m3 m−3. The values of
Chemical characterization of the assessed soil. ρb and ϕ were imposed on all treatments in order to maintain a standard
pH Al3+ H + Al Ca2+ Mg2+ K P C porous medium, thus diminishing the possible coefficient of variation
(CV) among all pots.
−3 −3
CaCl2 SMP cmolc dm mg dm g dm−3 Although SCG participation on particle composition becomes more
expressive in the mass of 2.088 kg from 0 to 20% of residue, the
4.2 5.5 1.01 7.2 1.6 0.08 0.20 1.3 17.2
granulometric composition in the 4 replicates were kept constant
minimizing the variance in the material arrangement for every ana-
2.2. Adding the spent coffee grounds into the soil lyzed SCG content. Furthermore, after uniformly accommodated in
pots, the material was submitted to wetting and drying cycles turning
The collected soil was let to be air-dried and then sieved through a the arrangement even more uniform. Pot holes on the base were cov-
4 mm mesh. Then, pH and nutrient analyses were carried out for soil ered with geotextile cloth to avoid losing solid particles due to the
chemical characterization in laboratory. Soil pH was determined using water drainage. Lastly, pots were saturated by capillary rise allowing
a solution of CaCl2 0.01 mol dm−3. The potential acidity (H + Al) was free drainage afterwards, monitoring the material moisture three times
obtained from SMP with a pHmeter. The exchangeable cations of alu- a day, at 8:00 am, 12:00 and 6:00 pm, over three consecutive days.
minum (Al3+) were determined using a titration with bromothymol During this period, soil surface was covered to minimize evaporation
blue, calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) were determined in an effects.
atomic absorption spectrometry by extraction using a KCl 1 mol dm−3
solution. Potassium (K) was determined with Mehlich-1 extractive so-
2.4. The analyzed soil hydraulic properties
lution analyzed in flame spectrophotometer whereas phosphorus (P)
was determined with the same extractive solution, but in a spectro-
Soil hydraulic properties as water content at container capacity
photometer at 660 nm. The organic carbon (C) content was measured
(θcc), readily available water capacity (RAWC) and drainable porosity
using a cold digestion of Na2Cr2O7 with a spectrophotometer at 650 nm
range (ϕD) were analyzed to evaluate the effect of coffee sludge on soil
(Table 1).
hydraulic behavior. Pulling out the mass of every pot + geotextile cloth
Based on this soil chemical characterization, pH and chemical fer-
arrangement, the gravimetric material water content (θg) was mon-
tility correction were carried out according to the guidelines to lettuce
itored, determining also the volumetric material water content (θ) using
growth of the Manual of Fertilization and Liming recommended to the
the following equation:
States of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina (Commission of Soil
Chemistry and Fertility, RS/SC, 2004). Thereby, 0.177 kg of calcareous θ ≈ θg (ρb/ρw) (1)
dolomite were incubated into 58 kg of soil during 40 days, in order to −3
in which θ is the volumetric water content (m m ), θg is the gravi-
3
obtain a blend with pH 6.0. This mineral was homogenized into small
metric water content (kg kg−1), ρb is the bulk density (kg m−3) and ρw
amounts of soil and then scrambled to the remaining soil with adequate
is the specific mass of water (1000 kg m−3).
mixing. In order to increase the incubation efficiency, water was added
The mean data of θ (derived from 4 replicates), varying over the
to soil fractions at every 5 days, revolving them to keep soil wet and
time, were fitted using non-linear regression, to obtain the values of
homogeneous. After those 40 days, the soil was oven-dried at 60 °C for 4
water content at container capacity (θcc). The corresponding mean time
days. Soil fertility was adjusted by adding 100 mg dm−3 of P2O5 and
tcc in which the function θ(t) reaches θcc was determined considering
60 mg dm−3 of K2O, since phosphorus content was considered small
that the derivative of θ(t), generated from mean values of every SCG
and potassium content was considered large. Based on soil carbon
content, is null related to time when the minimum point from regressed
content, the added amount of nitrogen to soil was 50 mg dm−3.
function is attained [dθ(t)/dt] = 0. The mean θcc for every analyzed
The spent coffee grounds (SCG) were obtained from a cafeteria and
SCG content was then determined by replacing tcc into the generated
air-dried before mixing to the soil in other to create the material that
non-linear regressions.
compound the studied porous medium. Thus, SCG amounts were added
The parameter θr from Van Genuchten (1980)-Mualem model, used
into the soil with the gravimetric contents of 0 (without SCG), 5, 10, 15
to describe the soil water retention curve (SWRC), was estimated by the
and 20% (Table 2).
first pedotransfer function from Splintex 1.0 (Prevedello and Loyola,
2002; Silva et al., 2017; Reis et al., 2018). This function requires the
2.3. Experiment design
sand, silt and clay contents, bulk and particle density to provide the
values of SWRC parameters. Because of the sandy texture of the studied
The experiment was carried out using containers (pots) with di-
soil, the result of θr = 0.0860 m3 m−3 was set to the permanent wilting
mension of 0.16 m height and total volume of 2 dm3. The soil material
point (θpwp). Based on the results of θcc and θpwp, the readily available
with 5 different SCG contents (treatments) was inserted into these pots
water capacity (RAWC) was calculated as the second evaluated hy-
in a completely randomized design with 4 replicates to every treatment.
draulic property, by means of:
All pots were filled with 2.088 kg of dried material until the fullness of
1.74 dm3 reaching the bulk density (ρb) of 1.2 kg dm−3, equal to every RAWC=(θcc−θpwp)·p·z (2)
container. Total porosity (ϕ) was calculated based on this information
in which RAWC is the readily available water capacity (mm), θcc is the
water content at container capacity (m3 m−3), θpwp is the permanent
Table 2
Spent coffee ground (SCG) contents added into the soil for pots filling.
wilting point (m3 m−3), z is the root zone depth (mm) and p is the
average fraction of available water that can be depleted from the root
Mass (kg) zone before moisture stress occurs by evapotranspiration reduction
SCG content (%) Symbol Dried soil Dried SCG Total material
(0–1).
In this work, we used z for lettuce equal to 50 mm, factor of water
0 T0 2.0880 0 2.088 depletion (p) of 0.42 (according to Allen et al., 1998) and θcc as the
5 T5 1.9836 0.1044 2.088 major value obtained from all evaluated scenarios. To find the factor p
10 T10 1.8792 0.2088 2.088
of 0.42, we used the crop evapotranspiration (ETc), calculated by the
15 T15 1.7748 0.3132 2.088
20 T20 1.6704 0.4176 2.088 product of reference evapotranspiration (ET0 = 3 mm d−1) and the
crop coefficient (kc = 1), recommended by FAO (Allen et al., 1998).

315
M.E. Turek, et al.
The value of ET0 was chosen accordingly to Agronomic Institute of
Paraná (IAPAR, 2017) to Curitiba region during the period of the ex-
periment. Thereby, RAWC was calculated as 9.11 mm, which is
equivalent to 160 ml of water by pot for every day of irrigation. Based
on the values of ETc and RAWC the period of irrigation was estimated as
3 days in the initial strategy of irrigation schedule.
The third soil examined hydraulic property was the drainable por-
osity range (ϕD), which was analyzed under the effect of coffee sludge,
calculated by
ϕD=ϕ−θcc
in which ϕ and ϕD are, respectively, total porosity and drainable por-
osity range (m3 m−3) and θcc is the water content at container capacity
(m3 m−3).
2.5. Effects of spent coffee grounds on crop development
Aiming to examine whether the addition of SCG as soil conditioner
would affect the crop development on the studied soil or not, the
growing of lettuce seedlings of the crop “Mimosa Roxa Roxanne” were
monitored. The prepared pots were moved to a greenhouse where the
seedlings of lettuce were transplanted into them, 32 days after sowing.
The irrigation practice at the first week started right after the plants
transplanting and applied every 3 days, as planned before. Irrigation
period was then increased to 4 days after 7 days, to 5 days after 14 days
and to 6 days in the fourth week after transplanting, diminishing the
frequency of water supply. 28 days after transplanting, in order to
monitor the behavior of the crop without water supply, the last irri-
gation volume was decreased to 80 ml (half the RAWC) and then finally
ceased. This last stage was the only one without water supply to the
plants.
The development of lettuce plants was monitored by means of the
leaf area index (LAI) and the final wet and dry mass. LAI was de-
termined by superficial images of every pot after the transplanting
process, taking pictures at the same hour every 2 days. The camera was
propped into a holder to ensure the same Euclidean height (90°) and
consequently the same scale for all images, reaching more accuracy on
LAI measures. The images were then analyzed in a computer-aided
design software (Fig. 2). To perform this analysis, the crop growth
development was divided into 4 phases: phase I was from beginning
until the 6th day after transplanting, phase II comprehended 7th to 14th
day, phase III from 15th to 22th day, and phase IV from 23th to 30th
day. The method of measuring areas by computer-aided design software
is precise and used in several fields, such as in hydrology or mechanical
engineering, when the determination of perimeter and areas of wa-
tershed and small mechanical parts are need. Inasmuch as the lettuce
leaves are curved, this standardized method allowed us to determine
the evolution of the growing cycle and recognize the patterns of im-
proving/decreasing development of the plant in actual experimental
conditions, which are the interest of the study.
Lettuce plants were monitored throughout the entire growing cycle
under irrigation. Plants were removed from the pots when LAI de-
creased for more than 3 consecutive days. The period between the
Fig. 2. Example of obtained images of lettuce plants to determine leaf area index using computer-aided design.
Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321
ceasing on irrigation and the removal was defined as the lettuce sur-
vival time. After this removal, the wet mass of the plants was measured
for every replicate and SCG content. Then, plants were oven-dried at
60 °C for 3 days for dry mass determination for posteriori statistical
analysis of LAI, wet and dry mass.
2.6. Soil aeration
The minimum required space, or minimum drainable porosity
(ϕD,min) to allow oxygen diffusion can be estimated by a zero-order
(3)
oxygen consumption function (Ben-Noah and Friedman, 2018).
Boundary conditions for representing the oxygen concentration at the
upper layer as an initial value χ0 and the zero downward flux at the
bottom layer should be assumed for solving this function. Moreover, the
concentration at this point is zero for representing the total oxygen
deficit at the bottom. As described in Prevedello and Armindo (2015),
from the diffusion equation in non-transient condition, this relationship
can be written in a soil profile by:
ϕD,min=L2φO2/(2Dχ0) (4)
−3
in which ϕD,min (m m ) is the minimum drainable porosity to favor
3
soil aeration, L (m) is the profile length, φO2 (kg m−3 s-1) is the re-
spiration rate, D (m2 s-1) is soil diffusion coefficient and χ0 (kg m−3) is
the oxygen concentration at soil surface.
2.7. Statistical analysis
All measurements were taken in 4 replicates, and then the mean
values were used to represent them. The values of ρb and ϕ were im-
posed in all treatments in order to maintain a standardized porous
media, thus diminishing the coefficient of variation (CV) among all
pots. To evaluate the differences between treatments, analysis of var-
iance (ANOVA) combined with Tukey test, setting significance level at
0.05, were used to compare the mean results.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Soil hydraulic properties modification
The time to soil to reach container capacity (tcc) and their respective
θcc value was determined based on regressions of the mean monitored
values of the soil water content (θ) after free drainage in the pots. The
results from fitting non-linear regressions to every treatment using
mean values of θ are presented in Fig. 3.
Statistically significant differences were noticed in θcc among the
evaluated contents of the soil conditioner, confirming the effect of SCG
on water retention (Table 3). According to Warrick and Nielsen’s (1980)
criterion, the coefficient of variation (CV) values can be considered
small because they revealed values less than 12% for θcc among the four
replicates. This means that every assessed SCG concentration shows
uniformity in its four replicates. The highest result for θcc was observed
under the content of 15% of SCG, which generated consequently the
lowest ϕD. However, there were not significant differences among T10,
316
M.E. Turek, et al. Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321

Fig. 4. Volumetric water content at container capacity (θcc) as function of spent

Fig. 3. Mean volumetric water content at container capacity (θcc) for the con-
coffee grounds (SCG) contents (diamonds) fitted by a cubic polynomial equa-
tents of 0 (T0), 5 (T5), 10 (T10), 15 (T15) and 20% (T20) of SCG.
tion (line).

Table 3
and individual bioactive of some lettuce compounds cultivated with the
Mean time to reach container capacity (tcc), mean soil water content at con-
addition of SCG contents from 2.5 to 30% into the soil. The results of
tainer capacity (θcc), mean readily available water capacity (RAWC) and mean
carotenoids, chlorophylls and tocochromanols showed the same beha-
drainable porosity (ϕD).
viour as found for θcc in this work: they increased from 0 until 15% of
SCG content tcc θcc RAWC ϕD SCG and then decreased for 20% of SCG. Thus, it seems to have some
relationship between this difference on water retention capacity and
% h m3 m−3 CV (%) mm m3 m−3
the development of the plants and its compounds, caused by the ad-
0 65 0.3963c 4.61 43.2 c 0.1595a dition of SCG.
5 45 0.4243bc 9.99 47.1 bc 0.1178ab Kondamudi et al. (2008) evaluated the particle of SCG from a ca-
10 50 0.4864ab 5.26 55.7 ab 0.0615bc
feteria in Nevada, EUA, measuring an approximate diameter of
15 50 0.5191a 3.29 60.3a 0.0274c
20 60 0.4686ab 2.60 53.3ab 0.0827bc 0.02 mm, which is within the range of silt particle size
(0.002‒0.05 mm) and Kim et al. (2014) commented that specific sur-
*
Mean values followed by different minuscule letters in the columns indicate face area for grains with this size is about 7500 m2 kg−1. The standard
significant differences among treatments by Tukey test (P-value = 0.05). procedures of grinding and toasting coffee vary around the world,
however, there is usually a coarse grind and a medium toast in coun-
T15 and T20. tries where the high-quality coffee is consumed. On the other hand, the
Casaroli and De Jong van Lier (2008) discuss that θcc is influenced toast in Brazil is usually stronger whereas grind is fine, so the specific
by soil structure, texture, bulk density and organic matter content (OC). surface area could be even larger than 7500 m2 kg−1. Combining this
Thus, the addition of a material that promotes changes in OC may alter, wide value with other particle surface properties might contribute to
in some level, the values of θcc, result that was observed in this ex- enhance water retention, due to the influence on adhesion, adsorption
periment with SCG. Kasongo et al. (2011) reported that many studies and surface tension at the solid-liquid interface (Prevedello and
have been carried out about the use of organic waste as agents to im- Armindo, 2015). Therefore, SCG particles could play the role as silt
prove physicochemical properties in soil with low OC content. The particles, or even as clay depending on the grinding, being responsible
authors verified that a mixture of coffee pulp and coffee husk added to a for an improvement on water retention inferred by θcc.
sandy soil has decreased the percolation and improved the water re- The results of RAWC (Table 3) are based on the hypothesis that this
tention in levels of 55–60%, regardless the mixture content. This result material does not alter the mineral composition of the soil, by thus the
corroborates to the ones in this work, where an increase of 31% was retention in low potentials are not affected by its addition, inasmuch as
observed between the treatments T1 and T15. According to the same θpwp is mostly dependent on texture for this sandy loam soil. Cervera-
authors, that change in water retention is related to changes in soil Mata et al. (2017) reported that the addition of SCG contents of 2.5 and
structure due to OC increase. 10% increased the value of θfc on two Mediterranean soils, the same
The fitted regression based on results of θcc as a function of SCG increasement behavior observed in this study. These authors also
content is presented in Fig. 4. Since this fitted cubic polynomial is valid evaluated θpwp addressing both decrease and increase in water reten-
only to the domain between 0 and 20% of SCG in a sandy loam soil, it is tion for two different soils. However, in contrast with this study, these
not applicable to estimate the behavior of values that are not within this two soils were clayey and the behavior of the dry range of the SWRC is
range. The results of θcc have increased from T0 (0% vs. 0.396 m3 m−3) more affected by the addition of the residue than it is expected in the
until the critical maximum local point (15.07% vs. 0.5197 m3 m−3), sandy loam soil.
found out settling the first derivative of the cubic polynomial equal to All replicates without SCG content have presented results of ϕD
zero. From this point, the regression line becomes descending. The in- substantially larger than 0.12 m3 m−3 (Table 3). Meanwhile, the other
creasement in θcc until 15% of SCG is related to the arrangement of the containers have shown results smaller than this critical value. Although
porous media obtained from the sandy loam soil with the addition of ϕD between 15 and 20% of SCG contents did not reduce, the value of
the soil conditioner. The reason for the decreasing after 15% is asso- 0.083 m3 m−3 is still bellow the limiting range of 0.10-0.12 m3 m−3,
ciated with the geometry of pores, which was molded with SCG addi- suggested to most agricultural crops (Jury et al., 1991; Prevedello and
tion modifying their shape, tortuosity, continuity and conductivity. This Armindo, 2015; Reynolds et al., 2009). According to these authors, this
structure of pores can be further investigated using more specific minimum value is needed to occur the process of O2 difusion between
techniques, such as micromorphology by the images of tomography or the atmosphere and the porous media, allowing O2 availability, in en-
microscopy analysis. Cruz et al. (2014) assessed the antioxidant activity ough amount to root development. Therefore, even with the

317
M.E. Turek, et al. Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321

Fig. 6. Leaf area index (LAI) of lettuce plants under the treatments of 0 (T0), 5
(T5), 10 (T10), 15 (T15) and 20% (T20) of spent coffee grounds (SCG).

reported by Dommergues and Mangenot (1970), which are represented

Fig. 5. Variation of maximum oxygen consumption rate in the soil depth for all
treatments according to measured ϕD (A). Comparison between φO2 described
in literature for high and low demand O2 consumptions in soils without SCG
(Dommergues and Mangenot, 1970) and soil with addition of SCG measured by
Cervera-Mata et al. (2017) (B). Modelled results with Eq. (4) using L = 0.16 m
(length of the pot), D = 1.78∙10−5 m2s−1 (De Jong Van Lier et al., 2018),
χ0 = 0.26 kg m−3 (Prevedello and Armindo, 2015) and φO2 = 6.1∙10−8kg
m3s−1 (low demand), φO2 = 28.3∙10−8 kg m3 s−1 (high demand)
(Dommergues and Mangenot, 1970), φO2 = 4.6∙10−5 kg m3 s−1 (SCG = 10%),
φO2 = 2.6∙10−5 kg m3 s−1 (SCG = 2.5%) (Cervera-Mata et al., 2017).
improvement on water retention by the increase on θcc and conse-
quently on RAWC, the development of plants can be considerably im-
paired when retention and aeration are not balanced, negatively af-
fecting soil physical fertility.
As important as adequate water content, the available air space in
soil pores has direct influence on the availability of O2 to propitiate gas
flux for aerobic activities of roots and microorganisms (De Jong Van
Lier, 2018). The expected O2 consumption rate in the pot was modelled
with the measures of ϕD, whereas ϕD,min was obtained using the soil
respiration rate φO2, measured by Cervera-Mata et al. (2017) for dif-
ferent SCG contents. Profiles of O2 consumption rate are presented in
Fig. 5A considering that ϕD is constant throughout the whole soil sec-
tion. The differences on maximum φO2 between SCG contents were only
expressive in the thin layer from 0 to 0.01 m and reached the magnitude
of 10−6 to 10−8 kg m−3 s−1 at the bottom of the pot. It indicates that
by means of ϕD,min in Fig. 6B as “high” and “low” consumption. Con-
sidering the order of 10−8 for φO2, measured ϕD was sufficient to allow
high respiration rates, even at the bottom of the pot and regardless the
SCG content, reaching the minimum value of 8.2∙10−8 for 15% of SCG
at 0.16 m of soil depth. However, the addition of SCG increases the
oxygen consumption in soils even without crop cultivation due to the
increase on biological activity (Cervera-Mata et al., 2017). Thus, while
a ϕD,min of about 0.05 m3 m−3 at the bottom for the treatment without
SCG is sufficient to ensure aerobic conditions, this value overtake
0.40 m3 m−3 when 10% of SCG is added. Those results indicates that
the aerobic conditions could be compromised by the addition of SCG, so
the gain by increasing θcc should be evaluated to not cause impact on
ϕD and hence on aeration.
The lack of significant difference on the properties θcc and ϕD be-
tween the treatments T10 and T20 (Table 3) suggest that new experi-
ments should be accomplished, including more subdivisions on SCG
contents between 0 and 10% of SCG contents for this soil.
3.2. Crop development
According to results, lettuce plants presented more leaf area index
(LAI) without SCG addition than with the conditioner (Fig. 6). To other
treatments, the highest LAI was reached at T5 in the end of phase IV,
however, without significant difference (Table 4). The pair ϕD = 0.159
m3 m−3 vs. θcc = 0.388 m3 m−3 from T0 provided the greatest devel-
opment of this cultivar (6.45 g and LAI = 0.7846). The poorest devel-
opment presented from T5 to T20 can be associated with the reduction
on ϕD, which occurred with the increase of θcc compared to T0
(Table 3).
Corroborating with the reported limitations derived from addition
of SCG on crop development (Cervera-Mata et al., 2017; Hardgrove and
Table 4
Mean results of leaf area index (LAI) by development phase, wet mass and dry
mass of lettuce plants.
SCG contents LAI (m2 m−2) Mass (g)
(%) Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV wet dry

despite the larger available space in treatment T0, from the point of 0 0.1242 a
0.2964a
0.7737 a
12.535 a
12.54 a
6.45a
view of oxygen availability, this difference matters only in the super- 5 0.1092a 0.1230b 0.1467b 3.1125b 3.11b 0.45b
ficial layer. The expected ϕD,min for high and low O2 consumption rate 10 0.1340a 0.1636b 0.1620b 1.790b 1.79b 0.62b
based on measures of Dommergues and Mangenot (1970) in soils 15 0.1144 0.1341 0.1454 1.485 1.49 0.51b
a b b b b
without SCG and its comparison with the soil respiration rate measured 20 0.1183a 0.1082b 0.1160b 1.350b 1.35b 0.33b
by Cervera-Mata et al. (2017) in a soil with 2.5 and 10% of SCG are
presented in Fig. 5B. Results for respiration rate of about 10−8 are *
Mean values followed by different minuscule letters in the columns indicate
significant differences among treatments by Tukey test (P-value = 0.05).

318
M.E. Turek, et al.
Fig. 7. Development of lettuce plants at the end of growing cycle, under the SGC contents of 0 (A), 5 (B), 10 (C), 15 (D) and 20% (E).
Livesley, 2016), the increase on θcc affected lettuce development due to
low ϕD levels, which can directly affect soil aeration providing in-
sufficient space to O2 diffusion (Jury et al., 1991). Kim et al. (2016),
studying SCG application on dredged soils, found out that fine SCG
particles prevented O2 permeability by covering soil surface, showing
up as an inhibiting plant growth factor. Thereby, large results of θcc (or
even θfc) can be adverse to irrigated systems when the critical value of
ϕD, for the specific crop, is not considered.
Significant differences were not observed on LAI for phase I, de-
monstrating that results of θcc and ϕD were suitable for all treatments,
whereas on the next phases the differences on LAI, wet and dry mass
were obvious (Table 4); all restricted when ϕD was smaller than
0.12 m3 m−3. On the other phases, even without significant difference,
the higher values of LAI between T5 and T20 were observed when θcc
varied from 0.42 to 0.49 m3 m−3 and ϕD from 0.06 to 0.12 m3 m−3.
Indeed, there was a ϕD decrease with SCG addition.
The lower lettuce yield according to SCG addition can be associated
319
Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321
with a combination of physical and chemical fertility influence and this
effect can be visually observed on Fig. 7. Despite that, it was noticed a
significant increase on water retention from T0 to T10, suggesting that
this study could be performed using other crops.
Lettuce surviving, after ceased irrigation, was different according to
SCG addition, since SCG has influenced the RAWC and LAI. After the
last water supply, plants from T10 and T20 stayed without decrease on
LAI for 21 days, whereas on T0 this occurred for only 8 days. The larger
results of RAWC caused by the conditioner addition, as well as the
higher hydric demand in T0 due to evapotranspiration, corroborates
with that result.
3.3. Perspectives and considerations for spent coffee grounds as soil
conditioner
Aiming mainly to evaluate the SCG effects as conditioner to alter the
soil physical-hydraulic properties, by promoting adequate discard to
M.E. Turek, et al.
this waste material in the cheapest and easiest way, its chemical cor-
rection was not performed after added into the soil. Therefore, even in
small contents, SCG could have negatively influenced the lettuce de-
velopment, as verified by Hardgrove and Livesley (2016) to the crops
broccoli, leek, radish, viola and sunflower. It was also observed by
Cervera-Mata et al. (2017) that lettuce development was suppress by
SCG addition, although this residue has collaborated to change the
electrical conductivity and the ratio between carbon and nitrogen. This
suppression, also observed in this work, should be better explained
because even a small SCG amount in T5 (0.1044 kg, Table 2) was suf-
ficient to significant decrease LAI and biomass production. These de-
creases were not significantly different on the other assessed contents
(Table 4), indicating, among other non-studied factors, the aeration
deficit influence.
Future studies should evaluate whether the chemical correction of
soil after addition of SCG is a suitable practice or not, by analyzing its
chemical effect on crop production. The induction of hydric stress with
less frequent irrigation depths (larger than 6 days) should be also
evaluated. Additionally, studies in less thickened soils to promote
greater porosity, with more SCG contents between 0 and 10%, to pro-
mote the increase of θcc without compromise ϕD could show peculia-
rities that was not entirely revealed with our experimental design.
This work corroborates with the need of research on the use of this
residue, currently with no costs, as a conditioner to improve the phy-
sical fertility in soils with small water retention, including pots with
ornamental cultivation potential. Despite the lettuce development was
spoiled by soil aeration on this work, SCG addition indeed promoted
soil hydraulic properties changes. This effect can positively benefit
other porous medium and crops being, therefore, better explored in
further studies. Since SCG application has been reported to enable the
development of arboreal trees in dredged soils (Kim et al., 2016) and
increases dry matter production in sandy soils in the humid tropics
(Kasongo et al., 2013), its application in soils with low retention ca-
pacity only on crop lines, or in pits to tree species with large planting
spacing, should be evaluated to better reclamation of local rainfall or
irrigation water in arid and semiarid regions.
4. Conclusions
In this study, the application of SCG as soil conditioner was in-
vestigated together with its influence on lettuce growth. Changes on
soil hydraulic properties were observed, such as water retention and
aeration, evidencing SCG as a potential conditioner to soils with poor
retention capacity. Water content at container capacity increased from
0 to 15% of SCG and decreased from 15 to 20%. Although 7% of in-
crease on θcc from 10 to 15% of SCG, this gain was not significant
suggesting that the application of SCG contents larger than 10% for
sandy loam soils should not be done. High contents of SCG spoiled the
development of lettuce crop causing significantly decrease on leaf area
index (LAI) and cumulative mass indicating the excessive application.
The highest results for mass and LAI were observed when drainable
porosity overcame 0.118 m3 m−3, in the pot without SCG, since it was
not induced hydric stress in any SCG content. Plants cultivated under
the contents of 10 and 15% survived through 21 days after the last
irrigation, due to a combination of less LAI, implying less evapo-
transpiration, and larger RAWC. The application of this study in other
soils and plants remains open, enabling as an alternative destination to
this organic waste yielded by coffee brews preparation.
References
Agronomic Institute of Paraná (Iapar), 2017. Climate Charts of Paraná. (Accessed: 15th
August 2017). http://www.iapar.br/modules/conteudo/conteudo.php?conteudo=
861.
Allen, R.G., Pereira, L.S., Raes, D., Smith, M., 1998. Crop Evapotranspiration: Guidelines
for Computing Crop Water Requirements – FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
320
Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321
Ben-Noah, I., Friedman, S.P., 2018. Review and evaluation of root respiration and of
natural and agricultural processes of soil aeration. Vadose Zone J. 17, 170119.
https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2017.06.0119.
Casaroli, D., De Jong Van Lier, Q., 2008. Criteria for pot capacity determination. Braz. J.
Soil Sci. 32, 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-06832008000100007.
Cervera-Mata, A., Pastoriza, S., Rufián-Henares, J.A., Párraga, J., Martín-García, J.M.,
Delgado, G., 2017. Impact of spent coffee grounds as organic amendment on soil
fertility and lettuce growth in two Mediterranean agricultural soils. Arch. Agron. Soil
Sci. https://doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2017.1387651.
Commission of Soil Chemistry and Fertility ‒ RS/SC, 2004. Manual Fertilization and
Liming in the States of Rio Grande Do Sul and Santa Catarina, 10th ed. Porto Alegre,
Brazil.
Cong, Z., Lü, H., Ni, G., 2014. A simplified dynamic method for field capacity estimation
and its parameter analysis. Water Sci. Eng. 7, 351–362. https://doi.org/10.3882/j.
issn.1674-2370.2014.04.001.
Cruz, R., Baptista, P., Cunha, S., Pereira, J.A., Casal, S., 2012. Carotenoids of lettuce
(Lactuca sativa L.) grown on soil enriched with spent coffee grounds. Molecules 17,
1535–1547. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules17021535.
Cruz, R., Gomes, T., Ferreira, A., Mendes, E., Baptista, P., Cunha, S., Pereira, J.A.,
Ramalhosa, E., Casal, S., 2014. Antioxidant activity and bioactive compounds of
lettuce improved by espresso coffee residues. Food Chem. 145, 95–101. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.08.038.
De Jong Van Lier, Q., Pinheiro, E.A.R., Inforsato, L., 2018. A one-dimensional physically
based approach to predict soil profile aeration requirements. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 82,
593–600. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2017.10.0369.
Dommergues, Y., Mangenot, F., 1970. Ecologie microbienne du sol. Paris, Masson et Cie.
pp. 791.
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária – EMBRAPA and Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio
às Micro e Pequenas Empresas – SEBRAE, 2010. Catálogo Brasileiro De Hortaliças:
saiba como plantar e aproveitar 50 das espécies mais comercializadas no País.
EMBRAPA/SEBRAE, Brasília, pp. 59. http://www.ceasa.gov.br/dados/publicacao/
Catalogo%20hortalicas.pdf.
Gee, G., Or, D., 2002. Particle-size analysis. In: Dane, J.H., Topp, C. (Eds.), Methods of
Soil Analysis: Physical Methods, Book Series No. 5 Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. pp. 255–293
Madison.
Gomes, T., Pereira, J.A., Ramalhosa, E., Casal, S., Baptista, P., et al., 2013. In: Francisco,
A.T. (Ed.), Effect of Fresh and Composted Spent Coffee Grounds on Lettuce Growth,
Photosynthetic Pigments and Mineral Composition. VII Congreso Ibérico de
Agroingeniería y Ciencias Hortícolas, Madrid.
Hardgrove, S.J., Livesley, S.J., 2016. Applying spent coffee grounds directly to urban
agriculture soils greatly reduces plant growth. Urban For. Urban Green. 18, 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.02.015.
Jury, W.A., Gardner, W.R., Gardner, W.H., 1991. Soil Physics, 5th ed. John Wiley & Sons,
New York.
Kasongo, R.K., Verdoodt, A., Kanyankagote, P., Baert, G., Van Ranst, E., 2011. Coffee
waste as an alternative fertilizer with soil improving properties for sandy soils in
humid tropical environments. Soil Use Manag. 27, 94–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/
j.1475-2743.2010.00315.x.
Kasongo, R.K., Verdoodt, A., Kanyankagote, P., Baert, G., Van Ranst, E., 2013. Response
of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) to coffee waste application on a humid
tropical sandy soil. Soil Use Manag. 29, 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.12006.
Kim, M.S., Min, H.G., Koo, N., Park, J., Lee, S.H., Bak, G.I., Kim, J.G., 2014. The effec-
tiveness of spent coffee grounds and its biochar on the amelioration of heavy metals-
contaminated water and soil using chemical and biological assessments. J. Environ.
Manage. 146, 124–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.07.001.
Kim, D., Kim, M., Kim, M., Park, K., 2016. Improvement of saemangeum dredged soils
using coffee sludge for vegetation soil. Adv. Mater. Sci. Eng. https://doi.org/10.
1155/2016/4698561. Article ID 4698561.
Kondamudi, N., Mohapatra, S.K., Misra, M., 2008. Spent coffee grounds as a versatile
source of green energy. J. Agric. Food Chem. 56, 11757–11760. https://doi.org/10.
1021/jf802487s.
Mata, T.M., Martins, A.A., Caetano, N.S., 2018. Bio-refinery approach for spent coffee
grounds valorization. Bioresour. Technol. 247, 1077–1084.
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, 2017. Coffee in Brazil. (Accessed 31th
march 2017). http://www.agricultura.gov.br/assuntos/politica-agricola/cafe/
cafeicultura-brasileira.
Moraes, O., Botrel, T.A., Dias, C.T.S., 2001. Effect of the use of hydrorretentor polymer on
the soil on the irrigation interval in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Rural Eng. 12 single
volume.
Nunes, A.L., Bispo, N.B., Hernandez, R.H., Navarini, L., 2009. Evapotranspiration and
crop coefficient of lettuce in the southwest region of the state of Paraná. Braz. Sci.
Agraria 10, 397–402.
Prevedello, C.L., Armindo, R.A., 2015. Soil Physics With Solved Questions: 2nd Revised
and Extended Edition, 2nd ed. pp. 473p C. L. Prevedello, Curitiba.
Prevedello, C.L., Loyola, J.M.T., 2002. Model for estimating the hydraulic properties of
porous media from the granulometric curve. Brazilian Conference on Soil Mechanics
and Geotechnical Engineering 467–472.
Reis, A.M.H., Armindo, R.A., Durães, M.F., De Jong Van Lier, Q., 2018. Evaluating ped-
otransfer functions of the Splintex model. Eur. J. Soil Sci. 69, 685–697. https://doi.
org/10.1111/ejss.12675.
Reynolds, W.D., Yang, X.M., Drury, C.F., Zhang, T.Q., Tan, C.S., 2003. Effects of selected
conditioners and tillage on the physical quality of a clay loam soil. Can. J. Soil Sci. 83
(4), 381–393. https://doi.org/10.4141/S02-066. 2003.
Reynolds, W.D., Drury, C.F., Tan, C.S., Fox, C.A., Yang, C.M., 2009. Use of indicators and
pore volume-function characteristics to quantify soil physical quality. Geoderma 152,
252–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2009.06.009.
M.E. Turek, et al.
Romano, N., Santini, A., 2002. Water retention and storage: Field. In: Dane, J.H., Topp,
G.C. (Eds.), Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 4: Physical Methods. Soil Science Society of
America, Madison, pp. 721–738.
Shimshi, D., 1963. Effect of chemical closure of stomata on transpiration in varied soil
and atmospheric environments. Plant Physiol. 38 (6), 709–712.
Silva, A.C., Armindo, R.A., Brito, A.A., Schaap, M., 2017. SPLINTEX: an alternative based-
physical pedotransfer function for modeling soil hydraulic functions. Soil Tillage Res.
174, 261–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2017.07.011.
Soil Survey Staff, 1999. Soil Taxonomy: a Basic System of Soil Classification for Making
and Interpreting Soil Surveys, Second ed. Natural Resources Conservation Service.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook 436, Washington.
Turek, M.E., Armindo, R.A., Wendroth, O., Dos Santos, I., 2018. Criteria for the
321
Agricultural Water Management 222 (2019) 313–321
estimation of field capacity and their implications for the bucket type model. Eur. J.
Soil Sci. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12747.
Vale, G.F.R., Carvalho, S.P., Paiva, L.C., 2006. Efficiency evaluation of water absorbing
polymers on after planting coffee plant growth. Coffee Sci. 1 (1), 7–13.
Van Genuchten, M.Th., 1980. A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic con-
ductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 44, 892–898. https://doi.org/10.
2136/sssaj1980.03615995004400050002x.
Veihmeyer, F.J., Hendrickson, A.H., 1931. The moisture equivalent as a measure of the
field capacity of soils. Soil Sci. 32 (3), 181–194.
Warrick, A.W., Nielsen, D.R., 1980. Spatial variability of soil physical properties in the
field. In: Hillel, D. (Ed.), Applications of Soil Physics. Academic Press, New York.