Improvement of Soil Physical and Chemical Properties under Irrigation with Saline Water Conditions in Ras Sudr Area - South Sinai

The objective of this work is to study the improvement of soil physical properties under different soil treatments using saline water. The field experiment was conducted at Ras Sudr station South Sinai. in sandy loam soil in order to study the effect of the application of farmyard manure (FYM), agricultural elemental sulfur (A.S.) and their combinations (FYM + A.S.) on some soil physical and chemical properties. The experiment used three rates of farmyard manure (10, 15 and 20 ton/fed), three rates of agricultural sulfur (50, 75 and 100 kg/fed) and their mixtures by 20 ton/fed farmyard manure with each of 50, 75 and 100 kg/fed of agricultural sulfur. In addition, three levels of irrigation water applied (50, 75 and 100% from available water). The barley crop (Giza 123) as indicator which was planted in November, 2017 using drip irrigation system. Irrigation water used for the experiment has values of, Ec and SAR (sodium adsorbed ratio) 8.96 dS.m^-1 and 22.74, respectively. The results showed that the effect of all studied soil treatments were significantly decreased the soil bulk density, while the effects of irrigation water applied rates were significantly increased relatively to control. Hydraulic conductivity values were significantly decreased by using different rates of FYM and combination FYM+A.S., while it significantly increased using A.S treatment alone relatively to control. The increase of soil available water was in the order FYM+A.S. > FYM > A.S. > control. Their values were affected significantly by different treatments and integrated application rates of FYM + A.S. Hydraulic conductivity values were significantly decreased with increasing irrigation water levels. Data clearly evident that the size of water stable aggregates as well as mean weight diameter were improved due to the use of FYM and combination FYM + A.S. as compared to application of A.S. alone. The EC values decreased with increasing rates of FYM and combination (FYM+A.S.), while reverse trend was noticed with A.S. alone. Application of soil treatments decreased each of SAR, ESP and pH, while these parameters were increased with increasing levels of irrigation water applied. The effect of the treatments on Investment Ratio (I.R.) could be arranged as follow: 20 ton/fed FYM + 100 Kg/fed A.S. >15 ton/fed FYM >20 ton /fed FYM + 75 Kg/fed A.S. > 20 ton/fed FYM > 20 ton/fed FYM + 50 Kg/fed A.S. > 10 ton/fed FYM >75 Kg/fed A.S. >100 Kg/fed A.S. > 50 Kg/fed A.S.> control under 100% irrigation water applied.