AN ORGANIC SOURCE AND ELEMENTAL SULFUR INPUTS FOR CALCAREOUS SOIL MANAGEMENT, BARLEY YIELD AND ITS COMPONENTS | ||
| Fayoum Journal of Agricultural Research and Development | ||
| Article 13, Volume 19, Issue 2, July 2005, Pages 148-162 PDF (456.18 K) | ||
| Document Type: Research articles. | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/fjard.2005.197841 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Anas A.A. Wahdan; Ahmed A.A. Hassanien; Nagat G.M. Aziz | ||
| 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 | ||
| Barley; organic manure; elemental sulfur; calcareous soils; macro and micronutrients | ||
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