RESPONDING OF SOME PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF DETERIORATED SOIL AT EL-FAYOUM OASIS AND WHEAT YIELD TO TILLAGE AND AMENDMENTS

The present study was carried out, during the winter season of 2010/2011, on deteriorated, i.e. saline alkaline, soil at Al-Fayoum Oasis, Egypt. Soil treatments were included surface tillage up to 25 cm (Ts) and subsurface tillage up to 50 cm (Td) as well as the amendment treatments of gypsum (G) and sulfur mixed with manure fertilizer (S+FYM). As well as the control treatment (C) without any additions, i.e. zero treatment, to be used in the comparison. Some soil physical and chemical characteristics in addition to grain yield and uptake of some nutrients by wheat were studied.
In general, obtained data showed that, treated the saline alkaline soil of this study with tillage and any used amendments caused desirable effects on decreases all of bulk density, ECe , soil pH and soil ESP and increases all of, total porosity, hydraulic conductivity and soil organic matter with significant trends. These trends was more pronounced with (Td) than (Ts) and with (S+FYM) than with (G) .While the highest responding for the combination between tillage type and amendments was  achieved in soil ploughed with (Td) type and amendment with (S+FYM) . The same trends were behaved with soil contents of available nutrients of N, P, K, Fe, Mn and Zn.
The application of amendments or ploughed soil with tillage resulted the highest wheat grain yields (kg/fed) and 1000 grain weight (g/plant) as well as N, P, K, Fe, Mn and Zn contents of grains than with control one (C). Wheat grain (kg/fed) and 1000 grain weight (g) values were significantly increased in case of (Td) treatment compared with (Ts) one. Generally, under the circumstances of this search work, it can be noticed that best improvement of the soil physical and chemical properties as well as the best yield and quality of wheat were achieved with the treatment of (S+FYM) in conjunction with sub-soil tillage (Td).