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302877

Impact of Many Amendments and Their Mixtures on Soil Properties and Squash Production in Saline-sodic Soil

Article

Last updated: 28 Dec 2024

Subjects

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Tags

Soil science

Abstract

:A field experiment using squash crop (Cucurbita pepo L.) variety askandrani was carried out at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba-Basha), Alexandria University, Egypt during 2014 growing season. The farm is located at Abees region 31˚ 10.102′ N and 29˚ 58.085′ E with altitude of (-5m) below sea level. The present research studied the effect of soil amendments such as animal manure, bagasse, sulphur and gypsum with different combinations on the physical and chemical properties of saline-sodic soil and also its effects on squash growth and fruit yield characteristics besides the nutrients content of leaves and fruits. Seventeen treatments of soil amendments were applied to soil and mixed thoroughly with the upper 30 cm layer. The squash was sowing at 13th October. Seeds were sown at 4-5 seeds in each hill with spacing of 0.25 m within each row and 0.6 spacing, and then thinned to one plant after 2 weeks from sowing. After emergence, the plots were irrigated by the furrow irrigation method. Harvesting was at 6, 11 and 27 December. Vegetative growth, yield and yield components and nutrients content of leaves and fruits were measured. Also, physical and chemical characteristics were determined. The obtained results revealed that all vegetative characters (leaf fresh and dry weights, leaf water content, gross plant weight and chlorophyll contents) were not affected by amendments treatments. The highest values were attained with animal manure (24 ton/ha) plus gypsum (4 ton/ha). The maximum squash fruit yield characters (fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit weight and fruit yield) were attained with animal manure plus gypsum treatment. The value of squash fruit yield was significantly increased with soil amendments treatments and the maximum value was attained with animal manure plus gypsum treatment (6954.0 kg/ha, it is accounted as 271.30% over the control treatment. All macro- and micro-nutrients content of leaves and fruits are significantly affected by application of soil amendments, especially animal manure plus gypsum treatment. The soil physical properties such as bulk density, mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter, structure coefficient and geometric standard deviation are significantly improved by applications of soil amendments. The soil stability index (SI), Kelly's ratio (KR) and permeability index (PI) indicates an excess level of sodium and the soil qualified to alkali hazards. Thus soil has problem about the water permeability.  All soil chemical properties including the nutrients availability were improved as a result of application of different soil amendments, especially animal manure plus gypsum. Also, soil available macro- and micro-nutrients were improved with application of soil amendments. It is clear that animal manure plus gypsum treatment is the best treatment for improvement of the sodic soil.

DOI

10.21608/jalexu.2016.302877

Keywords

Salt-affected soil, Sodic soil, organic amendments, Natural amendments, gypsum, Physical properties, squash plants

Authors

First Name

Nasser

Last Name

Mofatah

MiddleName

Basheer

Affiliation

Higher Institute for Water Affairs, Libya

Email

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City

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Orcid

-

First Name

Gamal

Last Name

khalil

MiddleName

Abdel-Nasser

Affiliation

Soil and Agricultural Chemistry Dept., Faculty of Agriculture Saba Basha, Alexandria University

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Ali

Last Name

Abido

MiddleName

Ibrahim Ali

Affiliation

Plant Production Dept., Faculty of Agriculture Saba Basha, Alexandria University

Email

-

City

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Orcid

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Volume

21

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

26001

Issue Date

2016-06-01

Receive Date

2023-06-10

Publish Date

2016-06-01

Page Start

288

Page End

313

Print ISSN

1110-5585

Online ISSN

2785-9525

Link

https://jalexu.journals.ekb.eg/article_302877.html

Detail API

https://jalexu.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=302877

Order

18

Type

Research papers

Type Code

1,789

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of the Advances in Agricultural Researches

Publication Link

https://jalexu.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Impact of Many Amendments and Their Mixtures on Soil Properties and Squash Production in Saline-sodic Soil

Details

Type

Article

Created At

28 Dec 2024