THE IMPROVEMENT OF SOME SOIL HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES AND AGGREGATE STABILITY WITH DIFFERENT SOIL CONDITIONERS

The successful management of water and soil conservation generally depends on the improvement of infiltration rate, aggregate stability and water-holding capacity of soil. This issue has gained importance among the environmental and agricultural researchers, and different studies have been conducted on a variety of natural and synthetic soil conditioners. This study provides highlights about improving soil properties for more effective water management with soil containers. Secondly, the objective of this study was to determine the effects of polyacrylamide (PAM), straw mulch (SM), and paper pellet (PP) on infiltration rate (IR), aggregate stability (AS) and water-holding capacity (WHC) of soil. Treatments were the application of PAM with irrigation water (10 mg.L-1), SM (1.25 and 2.5 kg.m(-2)), and waste PP (1.25 and 2.5 kg.m(-2)) mulching. The study results indicated that each treatment had particular effects on IR. PAM application had little effect on infiltration, and it was more effective on AS, when compared to other conditioners. SM and PP applications increased AS depending on the increase of organic matter content in the soil. PAM application at given concentrations had no significant effects on water-holding capacity. However, it can be inferred that other mulching applications had positive effects on field capacity and, thereby, on available water content depending on the mulching rate. It is well-known that the effect of PAM is observed especially during irrigation, and this is not permanent for soil amendment but has an instant effect for many conditions. However, using SM and PP is more appropriate, because of their low costs, more persistent effects, and opportunity to re-use residues.