Effect of Soil Salinity Improvers on Cotton Productivity on Land Reclamation

SOIL salinity impairs plant productivity in Egypt due to immoderate accumulation of NaCl. To improve the productivity of saline-sodic soil via soil application of salinity improvers (SSI) to enhance the soil physical, biological and chemical properties and improve plant growth and productivity. Two field experiments were conducted at land reclamation at El Nobaria Research Station, Cotton Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, El Beheira, Egypt, during 2020 and 2021 seasons, by using SSI (gypsum, sulfur and salinity correction) to study their effect on soil chemical properties and the leaves chemical constituents, growth, yield characters and fiber properties of Giza 94 cotton cultivar. A complete random design with four replicates was used as following: Control (T1), gypsum (T2), sulfur (T3), salinity correction (T4), gypsum + sulfur (T5), gypsum + salinity correction (T6), sulfur + salinity correction (T7) and gypsum + sulfur + salinity correction (T8). Results indicated that all SSI improved saline-sodic soil chemical properties by decreasing electrical conductivity (EC), sodium absorption ratio (SAR) and Na+ content whereas increasing Ca2+ content. All SSI applications individually or in combination significantly increased cotton leaves chemical constituents, growth, yield characters and fiber properties. The better performance for the individually application via T4 gave higher seed cotton yield (9.334 and 9.46k/f) and the combination application via T8 recorded the highest values of seed cotton yield (10.67 and 10.82k/f) compared to T1 in both seasons, which SSI (calcium and sulfur-containing compounds) improved salinity soil effect by removing Na+ cations, allowing nutrients uptake and improved productivity of cotton.