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Water Absorption and Release Characteristics of a Polymer and its Effect on Available Water Content, Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Productivity and Water Use Efficiency in a Semi-arid Sandy Loam Soil

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Title Water Absorption and Release Characteristics of a Polymer and its Effect on Available Water Content, Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Productivity and Water Use Efficiency in a Semi-arid Sandy Loam Soil
Water Absorption and Release Characteristics of a Polymer and its Effect on Available Water Content, Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Productivity and Water Use Efficiency in a Semi-arid Sandy Loam Soil
 
Creator ICAR_CRIDA
 
Subject Polyacrylamide polymer, sandy soil, available water content, tomato, water productivity
 
Description Not Available
The problem of inefficient use of rain and irrigation water by crops is most important on light textured soils
of semi-arid and arid regions. Application of super absorbent polymers into the soil could be one of the
effective ways to increase water use efficiency in crops. Therefore, laboratory and field investigations have
been conducted to study water retention and release characteristics of a cross linked polymer of
polyacrylamide and potassium acrylate (PAM) and to evaluate its effect on yield and water productivity in
tomato grown on sandy loam soil under field conditions. In laboratory studies, irrespective of source of
water, polymer showed rapid initial hydration followed by no more water absorption towards the point of
equilibrium. Overall, the amount of water absorbed by one gram of polymer ranged from 247-369 g in
distilled water, 141-175 g in 50% Hoagland solution, 120-155 g in irrigation water, 116-141 g in 100%
Hoagland solution, 96-115 g in 0.01 M CaCl2 and 86-111 g in 200% Hoagland solution over 5 – 240 min
saturation period. The amount of water absorbed by polymer decreased from 360 to 110 g g-1 with increasing
electrical conductivity (EC) of the source of water from 0.03 to 2.23 dS m-1. Application of polymer at
graded rates (0.25-1.0% of soil, w/w) to sandy loam and sandy clay loam soils increased the available water
content by 101-192 per cent as compared to untreated soils. In field experiment, at every week irrigation,
application of polymer @ 25 or 50 kg ha-1 had no significant effect on tomato plant height and fruit yield.
Similarly, application of polymer had no significant effect on plant height and fruit yield when tomato was
irrigated every third week. But application of polymer at 25 kg ha-1 with alternate week irrigation not only
produced the higher tomato yield but also increased the water productivity to 290.6 kg ha-mm-1 and thereby
saved 180 ha-mm irrigation waters during a crop growth season.
Not Available
 
Date 2020-03-05T04:24:47Z
2020-03-05T04:24:47Z
2015-01-01
 
Type Technical Report
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/33532
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher K. Sammi Reddy*, K. Srinivas, A.G.K. Reddy, K.L. Sharma, A.K. Indoria, K. Srinivas Reddy, Minakshi, T. Grover, B. Srinivas and B. Venkateswarlu