EFFECT OF MOLE DRAINS AND COMPOST APPLICATION ON SOME SOIL PROPERTIES, WATER RELATIONS AND ITS PRODUCTIVITY AT NORTH DELTA.

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Sakha Agricultural Research station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt to evaluate the effect of mole drain types, mole spacing and compost application on improving some soil physio-chemical properties, some water relations and yields of wheat and sunflower. The experiments were conducted in split-split plots with four replicates. The most important findings can be summarized as follows: Sandy mole and narrow mole spacing effects were superior to without sandy mole and wider mole spacing on reducing soil salinity and sodicity. The reductions of salinity were 24.70, 20.16 and 10.30%, respectively, after two seasons from experiment installation under mole distance of 2-m, 4-m and 6-m. While, the corresponding values of SARe were 13.41, 10.62 and 19.40%, respectively. The higher reduction of soil salinity and sodcity, were noticed with increasing rates of compost in both growing seasons. The construction of mole drain is more effective in reducing soil bulk density and increasing basic infiltration rate. The reducing soil bulk density and increasing basic infiltration rate were higher under sandy mole than mole without sand. The effect of mole spacing on reducing soil bulk density and increasing basic infiltration rate can be arranged according to the following descending order 2m > 4 m > 6 m > compared to data obtained before treatments. The construction of mole with narrow distances between the ploughed lines seemed to be effective in increasing availability of N, P and K especially with high rates of compost. Sandy mole and narrow mole spacing were superior to without sandy mole and wider mole spacing on improving water application efficiency, field and crop water use efficiencies. The highest values of field and crop water use efficiencies for wheat and sunflower were achieved from the interaction between sandy mole at 6 m spacing combined with application of 20 ton compost fed-1. Mole types, mole spacing and compost rates have highly significant effect on yields and yield components of wheat and sunflower. Sandy mole caused increasing of grain and straw yield of wheat than without sandy mole by 74.30 and 116.1%, respectively. Also, sandy mole caused increasing of seed yield and seed oil content of sunflower than without sandy mole by 48.41 kg fed-1 and 0.26%, respectively. The effect of mole spacing on wheat and sunflower yields and its components can be arranged according to the following descending order 2m > 4 m > 6 m. Compost application caused high increases in wheat and sunflower yields and its components especially with the high rates. The construction of sandy moles at 2 m spacing combined with addition of 20 ton compost fed-1gave the highest production of wheat grain yield(3886.7 kg fed-1).