Effect of Bentonite and Compost Applications in Some Chemical Properties of Soil, Growth of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) in Desert Soil

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate effect of some soil amendments as bentointe and compost in some chemical properties and plant growth parameters of sorghum in desert soil. Five levels of bentointe (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12% and Three levels of compost (0, 40 and 80 Mg ha-1) were used in the study. Randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates were used. The results showed that the bentonite and compost application significantly affected all the chemical properties under study and plant parameters. The level 12% of bentonite gave the highest rate of increase of 2.33, 54.25 and 21.35% for pH, O.M and CEC and increased plant height, leaf area and chlorophyll content of 15.67, 33.10 and 27.27% respectively. The results showed also that the level 80 Mg ha-1 of compost gave the highest rate of decease in pH by 1.34% and increase by 139.77, 113.21 for O.M and CEC while the plant parameters increased by 7.82 , 14.19 and 27.27% for plant height , leaf area and chlorophyll content respectively. As for the interaction, the treatment (C2B0) achieved the lowest value for pH reaching 7.21, while the treatment (C2B4) achieved the highest value for the content of organic matter, CEC and plant parameters under study. The results showed a positive significant linear correlation between bentonite level with the chemical properties of the soil and plant parameters.