Effect of organic waste and aggregate sizes in some of soil physical properties, soil salinity and barley growth (Hordium vulgare L.)

Abstract

Laboratory experiment was conducted to study the effect of three types of organic waste (chicken, sheep, Cows wastes ) and three different aggregate sizes (<2, <5, <10)mm on some soil physical properties, soil salinity and barley crop growth. The soil texture was clay loam. The soil samples were brought from north of Basrah governorate (Qurna district). The soil samples were dried in the air and then grinded. The soil samples were divided into three parts, one was passed through sieve of 2mm, the second through size of 5mm and the third through size of 10mm.The soils were distributed into plastic pots the amount of the soil was 2kg in each plastic pots the cows, sheep and chicken wastes were mixed with soil. The amount of the waste was 2% of the weight of the soil in each plastic pots the barley crop seeds (Hordium vulgare L.) were planted. The plastic pots were irrigated using tap water to the field capacity. The crop heights ware measured after two months of crop planting. The green and dry weights of the crop were measured after harvesting. The some soil physical properties were also measured namely aggregate stability which expressed as mean weight diameter (MWD), aggregate index, bulk density, total porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity and electrical conductivity. The results showed that the organic wastes significantly affected (improved) MWD, aggregate index, bulk density, total soil porosity, crop height and wet and dry weight of the crop green part. The values of the above parameters are 0.548mm, 0.395, 1.435 Mgm−3, 43.51%, 38.908cm, 14.41 g pots−1 and 2.592g pots−1 respectively compared with control treatment. While the organic wastes did not significantly affect the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil electrical conductivity. The chicken waste gave the highest MWD, aggregate index, total porosity, crop height and the wet and dry weight of the green part of the crop. The percentage of increased are 59.169, 64.890, 15.568, 16.000, 74.140 and 113.671% respectively, whereas the soil bulk density decreased by 9.730% compared with control treatment respectively. The results also showed the soil aggregate sizes significantly affected the aggregate index, soil bulk density, soil total porosity, soil electrical conductivity and crop growth, whereas it did not significantly affect MWD, soil saturated hydraulic conductivity. 2mm aggregate surpassed the other aggregates (5 and 10mm) in recording the height values for the above parameters except, soil bulk density and soil electrical conductivity which they decreased with 2mm aggregate.