Wastewater generated from food production chains and municipal sources contain valuable nutrients which provide a solution to over fertilization with virgin fertilizers. In this research, nutrients present in the synthetic municipal wastewater and dairy wastewater sources were recovered in bioresource-recovery-cells constructed with biochar and terracotta. The recovered nutrients from this process were used in crop growth studies in various formulations. A total of 60 corn plants were grown using five different soil mediums and three different nutrient treatments. We evaluated the effects of corn growth by amending topsoil with four different soil amendments, TS (terracotta-soil mixture), BS (Bichar-soil mixture), DWW (dairy wastewater treated biochar-terracottta material), and SWW (synthetic wastewater treated biochar-terracottta material), and three different nutrient loadings (0%, 50%, and 100% Hoagland nutrition solution). The plants’ agro-physical characteristics were compared to the control group (unamended topsoil). The results showed that the plants grown in the DWW and SWW soil with the 0% and 50% nutrient treatment had the best results in plant height, total plant dry weight, the average number of leaves per plant, leaf surface area, shoot dry weight, root/shoot ratio, root surface area, and NBI when compared to the control group. At the 100% nutrient treatment, the plants grown in the TS soil had the best yielding plants. The results promise that farmers could potentially amend their soil with the DWW and SWW to gain higher plant yields. The soil amendment could save farmers money by not having to spend and apply as much fertilizer to their fields.
