Document Type : Research articles.
Authors
Soils and Water Department, Fac. of Agric. Fayoum Branch, Cairo Univ. Egypt.
Abstract
Two field experiments were conducted on the newly reclaimed
soils of calcareous in nature at the eastern edge of Tamia district, El
Fayoum Governorate, having different soil texture and CaCO3
contents, i.e., sandy loam-14.57 and clay loam-36.82%, and irrigated
with fresh Nile water for studying the response of soil and grown
barley (Hordeum vulgare, Giza 123) to organic manuring by cattle
farmyard manure and elemental sulfur. The applied treatments were 0,
10, 20 and 30 m3/fed for organic manure; 0, 0.75, 1.50 and 2.5 ton/fed
for elemental sulfur.
The obtained results showed positive benefits for improving the
soil characteristics under study due to the applied amendments, i.e.,
decreases in the values of soil bulk density, soil strength vs increases in
total porosity and soil moisture retention with increasing the rate of
applied organic manure for both studied soils. On the other hand, there
was a dual relationship between the applied organic manure rates and
hydraulic conductivity in both studied soils, where a gradual decrease
in the low CaCO3 soil vs an increase in the high CaCO3 one with
increasing the applied organic manure rates. It is noteworthy that the
beneficial effects of elemental sulfur rates took a trend similar to that
of the organic matter, but to a lesser extent.
In general, increasing the applied organic manure rates resulted
in an increase of soil organic matter content as well as a decrease of
soil pH. Also, results indicated that the applied elemental sulfur rates
surpassed the organic source for reducting soil pH value in both newly
reclaimed calcareous soils under investigation. As for soil fertility
status, the applied cattle farmyard manure surpassed the applied
elemental sulfur, may be due to it attained a relatively high content of
both essential macro and micronutrients (N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu)
as well as active organic acids which enhanced the availability of these
nutrients in soils. On the contrary, the relative high values of soil pH,
active CaCO3 and soluble Ca2+ controlled the availability of many of
these nutrients, especially phosphorus as a macronutrient and
micronutrients of Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu.
The beneficial effects of the applied amendments were also
extended to the cultivated barley plants, expressed as vegetative
growth parameters (plant height, No. of tillers/plant, No. of
leaves/plant, leaf area/plant and leaves dry weight/plant), crop yield
(straw or grains) and its components (1000 grain weight, protein
content % and nutrients uptake by plant), with superiority for organic
manure as compared to sulfur. The dry matter yield of the grown
barley plants was enhanced by the addition of both applied soil
amendments, especially for the cattle farmyard manure. Also, the
farmyard manure was more effective for improving the properties and
productivity of low CaCO3 soil as compared to the high CaCO3 one.
Keywords
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