Response Sunflower crop to drip irrigation tape (T-tape) level and added organic matter and its effect on some physical properties of the soil.

• Saqr Mijbil Al-jumaily

  Author

A field experiment was conducted in Salah al-Din Province , Al-Sharqat District - Ajmeela Island, Al-Nahr Village, during the 2025 agricultural season. The aim was to study the effect of three drip irrigation tape levels (I₁, I₂, I₃) in the first factor, along with the addition of three levels of organic matter (T₁, T₂, T₃) in the second factor, on some physical soil properties, namely bulk density, saturated water conductivity, and soil porosity, in the response of sunflower crops. This was used as an indicator of growth and yield in a sandy loamy soil, according to a completely randomized block design. The most important results showed that the value of saturated water conductivity in the soil decreased with increasing organic matter content, recording a minimum value of (2.38) cm·h⁻¹ and a maximum value of (4.52) cm·h⁻¹ at a 50% irrigation level. Meanwhile, bulk density values ​​increased with decreasing organic matter content, reaching a maximum value of (1.65), and bulk density increased with increasing irrigation level to 100%, reaching a value of (1.28). The results also showed that soil porosity increases with increasing organic matter content and decreasing irrigation levels, and decreases with decreasing organic matter content and increasing irrigation levels. Regarding the studied plant characteristics, the leaf area of ​​sunflower plants and overall yield increased with increasing organic matter content to 1% and 2%. The highest yield (5361.3 kg ha⁻¹) was achieved at a 75% irrigation level with 1% organic matter. As for leaf area, the highest average leaf area was recorded in treatment T₃ with 434.33 cm² plant⁻¹, a significant increase of 5.92% compared to treatment T₂ with 1% organic matter. Regarding the interaction, the highest leaf area (513.62 cm² plant⁻¹) was recorded in the interaction treatment (I₂T₃), while the lowest (289.79 cm² plant⁻¹) was recorded in treatment I3T1, at 75% of the plant's irrigation level and with a high percentage of organic matter. 2%. As for the effect of the irrigation level and the percentage of added organic matter on the weight of the plant's vegetative mass, the weight of the plant's vegetative mass increased with the increase in the irrigation level from (125.08 g plant^-1) to (146.56 g plant^-1), and the percentage of organic matter affected the increase in the weight of the vegetative mass from (121.83 g plant^-1) to (148.29 g plant^-1). Therefore, the study recommends using 75% of the lowest rate of irrigation level for the needs of the sunflower plant within the conditions of the sandy loamy soils of the study area, with an increase in the percentage of added organic matter further to improve the physical properties of the soil on other strategic crops.

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