Abstract
This study examined the leaching requirement of three saline-sodic soils in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) columns of 50 cm long
and 11 cm internal diameter. Air-dried soils were packed in PVC lysimeters receiving different pore volume (PV) of water
(EC 0.89 dS m-1
, SAR 1.55, RSC 1.02 mmolc L
-1
). Leaching with 2.5 PV of water removed 94 % of soluble salts and
decreased ECe from 33.9 to 5.9 dS m-1 in 0-25 cm layer of sandy clay loam soil. For lowering ECe
to < 4 dS m-1
in loamy
sand up to 0-25 cm soil layer, 2.0 PV water removed 67 % soluble salts. In silty clay loam soil, 2.5 PV water lowered ECe
to
< 4 dS m-1 only up to 0-10 cm depth with 83 % removal of salts. Relationships between EC/EC0 and Dw/Ds established were
for the soils as EC/EC0 = 0.329 (Dw/Ds)
-2.12 with r= 0.87 for loamy sand; EC/EC0 = 0.167 (Dw/Ds)
-0.60 with r=0.89 for silty
clay loam and EC/EC0 = 0.06 (Dw/Ds)
0.78 with r=0.98 for sandy clay loam soil. These relationships leads to conclude that
reduction in salinity of loamy sand, silty clay loam and sandy clay loam soil was 67, 83 and 94 % when leached with 1.88,
2.72 and 2.67 cm of water, respectively.
