The gasification filter cake (GFC) has great application potential for improving the characteristics of seedling substrates due to its nutrient richness and excellent water retention capacity. However, GFCs leach heavy metals easily and thus pose certain ecological risks. Sodium silicate can enhance plant resistance to heavy metal toxicity by fixing heavy metals. This study investigated the impact of sodium silicate on cucumber plant growth, the chemical characterization of the substrate, and the distribution and transfer of heavy metals. Sodium silicate was added to the seedling substrate mix at mass rates of 0 g/kg⁻¹ (GFC0), 2 g/kg⁻¹ (GFC2), 4 g/kg⁻¹ (GFC4), and 8 g/kg⁻¹ (GFC8). The seedling substrate was composed of a commercial matrix, caragana compost, and GFC (m:m 7:7:2). The GFC increased the content of total phosphorus (P), available phosphorus (P), and available potassium (K) in the substrate by 31.58%, 16.58%, and 80.10%, respectively. Conversely, the GFC decreased the plant height by 12.3%. Adding sodium silicate to the GFC increased the chlorophyll content of the plants, fixed heavy metals in the substrate, and promoted nutrient absorption and utilization by the plants. Compared with GFC0 without sodium silicate, adding sodium silicate at a mass rate of 2 g/kg⁻¹ (GFC2) reduced the chromium, lead, and cadmium contents by 51.13%, 26.37%, and 90.04%, respectively, which effectively alleviated heavy metal stress and was more conducive to plant growth.

The management of crop production in a sandy soil “culture” is difficult, mainly due to its low soil-water-holding capacity, organic matter and poor fertilizer efficiency. Options to increase soil water and nutrient retention for these soils include the addition of surface mulch covers, amendment with biochar and the use of layers of a mixture of charcoal and compost material. Our objective was to measure the distribution of water and nutrients for layers of control 1 (CK1), control 2 (CK2) and compost material of different thicknesses (0.02, 0.05 and 0.10 m) buried 0.01 m from the surface in a column (0.2 m radius, 0.5 m height) filled with sand. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse located at the Agricultural Science Training Base of Ningxia University, China. There were three replicates per treatment and one soil column per replicate. The soil columns were watered with 2 L via a surface drip emitter and 45 days later, soil samples were obtained in 0.01 m increments across the diameter and depth of 0.4 m, with a total of 12 samples per column. In each sample, we measured soil water, pH, electrical conductivity, ammonium and nitrate nitrogen and available P and K. The results showed that the distribution of water content and nutrient contents were centered on the dripper and diffused to its surroundings. Notably, the horizontal diffusion distance was smaller than that of the vertical direction. In the vertical direction, compared with control 1, adding compost changed the spatial distribution of WC and nutrients and had a greater impact on available potassium (AK) than on inorganic nitrogen (IN) and available phosphorus (AP). Compared with control 1, the composting treatment decreased the content of water in the 0–10 cm surface soil, reduced the electrical conductivity (EC) and nitrate nitrogen (NO₃-N), C5 and C10 increased the available potassium. Moreover, composting treatments increased the electrical conductivity, available phosphorus, available potassium and nitrate nitrogen of the 10–30 cm substrate by 61–384%, 10–240%, 11–45% and 133–929%, respectively, when compared with control 1.The nutrients increased as the thickness of the compost interlayer increased. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the C5 and C10 treatments significantly distinguished them from control 1. A linear regression fitting analysis showed that the inorganic nitrogen, available potassium and total nutrients positively correlated with the water content and electrical conductivity of the sand. The 5 cm and 10 cm composting interlayers had a high water content and ability to conserve fertilizer for sand culture, but C10 caused an excessive accumulation of nutrients. Thus, it was concluded that a composting interlayer that was less than 5 cm reduced the base fertilizer input by 24–84%. All these results suggest that applying a composting interlayer of 5 cm could retain more suitable root zone water and fertilizer for the next crop season and provide technological support to reduce fertilizer inputs.