Heba Sh. Shehata, Khaled A. Shaban, Adel A. Awad( 2013). EFFICIENCY OF BIO- AMENDMENTS ON SOIL FERTILITY AND COTTON PRODUCTIVITY IN NEWLY RECLAIMED SALINE SOIL
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 5. No. 5. September
Abstract: Two field experiments were conducted at Sahl El-Tina, North Sinai Governorate, during the spring seasons 2011 and 2012 to investigate the effect of bio-compost and compost tea alone or combination with different levels mineral nitrogen on cotton productivity under saline soils condition. Results showed that the application of biocompost and bio-compost tea alone or in combination with mineral nitrogen fertilizer rates decreased soil pH and
EC after cotton harvest. The highest values of soil available N, P and K were 52.89, 4.07 and 211 mg kg-1 respectively for soil treated with bio-compost and mineral nitrogen. Also, the highest mean values of Fe, Mn and Zn were 5.49, 2.71 and 0.95 (mg kg-1) respectively for soil treated with bio-compost compared with other treatments. The maximum plant height was 104.64 cm when bio-compost was applied. The maximum seed yield 2.250 Mg fed-1 in soil treated with bio-compost plus 75 kg N fed-1 compared with
other treatments. Applied of bio-compost or bio-compost extract with higher rates of mineral nitrogen fertilization on seed oil (%) was significant. The chlorophyll content in cotton leaves was increased with decreasing soil salinity and increasing of mineral N rate alone or combination with bio-compost or compost tea. The proline content in cotton leaves increased with increasing soil salinity levels and seed priming treatments differed
significantly in their ability to accumulate free proline under salinity stress. Plants treated with bio-compost and extract bio-compost caused significant increases in phenol levels in plants shoots, which the mean values was 0.33, 1.28 and 1.25. It could be concluded that the use of bio-compost plus 75 kg N fed-1 gave better cotton yield and led to improvement of saline soil.
Keywords: (Bio-compost; compost tea; saline soil ; rice straw; cotton)
