EFFECT OF SOIL AMENDMENT WITH SEWAGE SLUDGE ON WHEAT GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

Authors

1 Dept. Botany, Fac. Sci., Suez Canal Univ., Arish, Egypt.

2 Dept. Botany, Fac. Sci., Suez Canal Univ., Ismailia, Egypt

Abstract

Wheat as a cereal crop might display the top among all strategic crops, in Egypt the annual production is always behind the need and the gap between production and consumption remain great. The main target of the present investigation has been to study the effect of sewage sludge as organic fertilizer on wheat as a major cereal crop in Egypt. Composted and air-dried sewage sludge was obtained from the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Station at Al-Sheikh-Zowaied and applied at three rates for comparison, these rates were: 10%, 20% and 30%. For experimentation, the recommended cultivar Sakha-93 of Triticum aestivum L. was obtained and field experiments were conducted within the University Agriculture Farm at Al-Arish where the soil is typically sandy loam with little silt and clay. From each treatment, three plant samples were collected during the vegetative and reproductive phases and finally at the grain stage for comparing growth, productivity and yield-quality. The results indicated that fresh & dry weight of plant parts increased greatly by increasing the amount of sewage sludge. The effect was more prominent at the flowering stage. All concentrations of sludge amendment showed prominent increase in fresh & dry weight. Sludge amendment increased greatly total lipids, total protein and heavy metals absorption; however, the amount of increase was much higher compared to control natural soil. Growth and yield of wheat were greatly increased by sewage sludge amendment. The best yield (1.69 Ton/ Feddan) was reported at the sludge concentration of 20%.

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