Conditioning of desert sandy soil and investigation of the ameliorative effects of poultry manure and bentonite treatment rate on plant growth

Abstract

Soil is the base of any ecosystem since it conserves nutrients and water for plant roots including agriculture and plantations. In dry and semi-arid places across the world, including the UAE, sandy soils are common. Their fertility is extremely low, and production is hampered by a number of agronomic challenges. Soil conditioner sources like bentonite and chicken manure might be used to improve the poor sandy soil attributes and hence boost soil productivity. From November 2019 to March 2020, an experiment was conducted to investigate the growth rates of Bougainvillea following bentonite and chicken manure amendments to sandy soil taken from Lehbab, Dubai. Bougainvillea was evaluated for its plant height (cm), max length of primary branch (cm), the number of leaves per plant, number of secondary branches, shoot weight (g), root length (cm), root weight (g), root/shoot ratio, chlorophyll contents, and chlorophyll a* and b*. In this experiment, a complete randomized design (CRD) with five treatments was used (10 replications per treatment). According to the findings, bentonite and chicken manure additions considerably influence the productive properties of sandy soil, as indicated by Bougainvillea growth. Additionally, the research suggests that Bougainvillea may be efficiently planted with 10% bentonite and 15% chicken manure applied to sandy soil, resulting in the healthiest plants compared to other amendments.