EVALUATION OF WATER SALINITY ON SOME SOIL PROPERTIES AND SALT TOLERANCE OF SOME WHEAT CULTIVARS

Two pot experiments were conducted under wire proof-green house conditions to study the influence of irrigation water salinity on the state of soil salinity yield, yield components and chemical composition of four wheat cultivars. The wheat cultivars were; Sakha 93 (CV1), Sakha 94 (CV2), Gemmiza 10 (CV3) and Sakha8 (CV4). The levels of sailnity of the irrigation water were; 0.4 (control treatment), 4.0, 8.0, 12.0 and 16.00 dS/m; S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 respectively at sodium absorption ratio about 7 (SAR 7). The observed results can be summarized as follows: 1- The results revealed that the increase in ECe value of studied soil samples were 10.46, 16.26, 22.93 and 24.65 dS/m which resulted from using irrigation water having EC of 4.0, 8.5, 12.5, and 161d6m, respectively compared with control EC. value of 5.2 dS/m. Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and ESP were increased as a result of Na accumulation in the used soils. 2. Grain and, straw yields, total dry matter, 100 grain weight and harvest index were significantly decreased with increasing EC. The observed reduction in grain yield caused by increasing water salinity from 0.4 to 16.0 dSfm were (71.05 and 63.66%), (72.21 and 69.55%), (66.55 and 73.9%) and (70.63 and 77.85%) for CV., CV2, CV3 and CV4, respectively in the first and second seasons. 3. The study showed that the cultivars differed in their tolerance to water salinity levels. Sakha 94 wheat cultÑar was tolerate upto EC8.0 dS/m. While Sakha 93, Gemmeiza (10) and Sakha 8 were tolerate up to 4.0 dSIm. 4. The chemical composition of wheat cultivars was affected by water salinity levels. The control treatment obtained the highest values of N,P, and Kuptake by grain and straw yields.