Soil amendments are often used to improve the soil health of recalimed soil that has lost its value and is only used for road backfill of landfill cover. In total, 10 soil amendments were tested on two types of soil, that is, landfarming-treated DDC soil and thermally treated YJ soil. The 10 amendments were vermicompost (VC), peat moss (PM), chicken manure (CM), EM product (EM), chlorella (CCR), biochar (BC), compound fertilizer (CF), zeolite (ZL), dolomite lime (DL), and gypsum (GS). After 10 weeks of incubation with 5% (W/W) of the amendment, 7 soil enzyme activities along with germination and seedling growth of lentil were compared to the control. The results showed that the organic amendments CM and CR significantly enhanced the soil enzyme activities in both the DDC and YJ soils. However, the VC amendment in both types of soils best enhanced the germination and growth of lentils. Furthermore, even after 10 weeks of incubation with the amendment, plant stress and soil infertility, as indicated by the specific root length (SRL), still persisted despite the addition of soil amendment materials. These results suggest that a longer duration than 10 weeks is necessary for amendments to take effect on soil health enhancement.

Keywords: Amendment, Lentil, Reclaimed soil, Soil enzyme, Soil health