Treatment of saline water by care- free water conditioners equipment and its effect on some of the soil physical properties and sodium adsorption ratio in the silty clay soil.

Abstract

Afield experiment was conducted in silty clay soil classified as fine loamy active calcareous hyperthermic Typic Torrifluvents. The soil was planted by Alfalfa crop viriety (Medicago sativa) in the season of 2008-2009.Two irrigation water types were used, namely ; treated water by care – free water conditioners equipment and untreated water ( shatt –Al arab river water) it Ec was 7.94 ds.m-1. care – free equipment was connected in the irrigation pass line of the shatt – Alarab river water ; The diameter of the equipment was 1.5 in ( 3.81 cm).The soil properties changes due to using care- free equipment was studied after one and two months. The studied soil physical properties are saturated hydraulic conductivity , bulk density , total porosity and moisture content and its relation with sodium adsorption ratio ( SAR) for depths of 0-25 , 25-50 and 50-75 cm.The results showed that the treated water increased the saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil total porosity and decreased SAR significantly by 50.72 , 1.22 and 20.64%,respectively, compared with saline soil ( untreated water). But the treated water did not effect significantly on the soil bulk density and moisture content values.The Saturated hydraulic conductivity value is 0.994 m. day-1 after one month but became to 0.396 m. day-1 at the end of the experiment.The bulk density decreased while the total soil porosity increased significanthy by 4.9 and 5.33% , but they increased to 8.71 and 9.75% after two months compared with original values respectively. At the end of the experiment , SAR inereased significantly by 123.98% compared with its value of after one month of installing the equipment. The time period had no effect significant on the soil moisture content.The results also showed that the soil bulk density and the moisture content increased by 4.09 and 20.00% respectively while SAR decreased by 13% for depth of 50-75 cm compared with depth 0-25 cm.The saturated hydraulic conductivity and total soil porosity was not affected significantly with soil depth