Soil properties as influenced by use of water having variable salinity and sodicity

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted during summer season of 2018 at Net House, Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh to study the influence of different levels of saline and sodic irrigation water on soil properties. The treatment consists of four levels each of salinity (2, 4, 6 and 8 dS m-1) and sodicity (5.0, 10.0, 15.0 and 20.0 SAR) of irrigation water by adopting factorial CRD with three replications. The available macronutrients (N, P2O5 and K2O) and organic carbon of soil after harvest of the crop were found maximum with EC-2 dS m-1 and SAR-5.0 level of irrigation water. The water soluble and exchangeable Ca, Mg and Na and soil properties like EC2.5, ECe, pH2.5, pHs, CEC and ESP was found maximum with EC-8 dS m-1 while water soluble and exchangeable K was found maximum with EC-2 dS m-1. The water soluble and exchangeable Na was found maximum with SAR-20.0, whereas water soluble and exchangeable Ca, Mg and K were found minimum with SAR- 20.0. The soil properties like ECe, pH2.5, pHs and ESP of the soil was found maximum with SAR- 20.0, but CEC was found maximum with SAR-5.0. The combined effect of saline and sodic irrigation water was found significant on available N and water soluble cations Ca++, Mg++, Na+, K+, exchangeable Na+, ESP, ECe and pH2.5 of soil after harvest of groundnut.