Effect of deep plowing in soil penetration resistance,soil hydraulic conductivity and barley(HordeumVulgare L.) growth .

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on the Marsh land at the Al-Nasr irrigation project, Which is located at Al-Mudaina district , Basrah Province, south of Iraq . during the winter season of 2007/2008. The soil texture(planted S1 and unplanted S0) was silty clay. The aim was to Study the effect of deep plowing on soil penetration resistance , soil hydraulic conductivity and plant growth. The work included surface tillage by moldboard plough with 25 cm depth(C1),, and the subsurface tillage by subsoiler plough to a depth of 50 cm(C2) , then with moldboard plough .These two soils were planted with barley seeds (Hordeum Vulgare L.).The soil physical properties were determined for four growth stages including, Germination, branching , Flowering , and maturity . After the soil was prepared, it was divided into experimental units of 4*10 m.The experimental treatments were distributed into three replicates using the factorial experiment in complete randomized block design .The results indicated that the existing of impermeable layer at 30 cm depth caused an increase in penetration resistance (PR), and a decrease in the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) of the two soil (S1 and S0) .using subsoiler plough (C2) resulted an increase in Ks , whereas the PR were decreased in comparison with (C1) treatment , these influences continuous until the end of growth season. The C2 caused an increase in dry matter of plants in comparison with C1 for both S1& S0.