Effect of Magnetic Treatment on Irrigation Water Quality, Soil Properties and Growth of Sunflower Corp
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Date
2013
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UAS, Dharwad
Abstract
Experiments were conducted to study the effect of magnetic treatment on irrigation
water quality, soil properties, leaching efficiency of salts and growth of sunflower crop
during 2011- 2012 at College of Agriculture, UAS, Dharwad. Four separate experiments
were conducted to achieve the objectives. Irrigation waters with different salinity levels of
i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 dS m-1 were obtained by equilibrating natural saline soil with good
water in the ratio of 1:3 and used in the studies along with GW (0.6 dS m-1). For magnetic
treatment, the waters were passed though the magnetic device as required for each study.
The one-time magnetic treatment of irrigation water significantly decreased electrical
conductivity but the effect on pH was variable. With multiple magnetic treatments, the
difference between treated and untreated became increasingly narrow. The calcium,
magnesium, sodium and sodium adsorption ratio also followed the same trend. The magnetic
treatment also had mollifying effect on residual sodium carbonate of water. In general, the
decrease was of higher magnitude at lower level of water salinity. Intermittent irrigation with
magnetized water significantly decreased soil pH but increased soil salinity. Soil
exchangeable calcium, sodium and exchangeable sodium percentage decreased due to
irrigation with magnetized water. Soil water soluble calcium, magnesium and sodium
decreased due to magnetized water irrigation. The magnetic treatment significantly decreased
the dispersible clay content over non-magnetized water use.
Leaching a saline soil with magnetized water removed more salts from the soil
compared to leaching with non-magnetized water. Soils leached with magnetized water had
significantly higher leachate salinity and lower soil salinity compared to leaching with nonmagnetized
water. The magnetic treatment significantly increased germination percentage,
plant height and dry matter yield in sunflower over non-magnetized water use. The magnetic
treatment increased the K/Na ratio and improved its salt-tolerance.