The study of tea waste addition's effect on some soil properties and wheat plant growth

Abstract

The study included two experiments: The first factorial experiment executed in the laboratory according to the complete randomized design, to study the effect of soil type, the level of tea waste addition and incubation's time in some properties of three soils which are sandy, calcareous and gypsiferous, were treated with tea waste at levels 0, 3 and 6%, deposited in poly ethylene containers and well mixed, saturated to field water holding capacity, then incubated at 25±2oC, experimental units were moisturized after losing 50% of the soil's available moisture. After one week, two, three, four and five weeks the experimental units were taken out of the incubator for every treatment, soil bulk density was estimated then the soil was well mixed and the sample used to prepare 1:1 (Soil : Water) extract to estimate electrical conductivity and soil reaction. The second experiment also included factorial experiment executed in pots according to the complete randomized block design in the green house, included two treatments the first was soil type which was the same of the soils above, the second treatment was the addition of tea waste at same levels which added at the laboratory experiment, Wheat plants Ebai 95 Varity was sowed, the pots were irrigated after losing 50% of the soil's available water by weighting method. After two months of sowing, the plants were removed and some growth parameters were estimated to them, which are plant length, dry weight for shoot and root systems, and some soil physical, and chemical properties were estimated too. The results showed that the addition of tea waste has a significant effect on the soil electrical conductivity, which was decreased 14.6% and 22.4% for 3% and 6% addition levels respectively. Soil reaction also decreased significantly with 1.7% and 2.0% for same addition levels respectively, Soil bulk density values that were measured for treated soils also showed significant reduction with a percentage of 7.9% and 11.6% for addition level with 3% and 6% respectively compared to control treatment. The effect of incubation time on the studied parameters for soils showed second regression relationship with higher significant correlation.