Response of coriander plant grown on sandy soil and irrigated with saline water to chicken manure, compost and micronutrient in Sirte, Libya

Abstract

The use of saline water is an urgent and unavoidable necessity, despite our current knowledge of the harm caused by high salinity in irrigation water and its negative impact on growing plants and the entire agricultural sector. Therefore, overcoming the damage caused by irrigation with degraded, highly saline water is crucial, especially in water-scarce countries like Libya. So, a pot experiment was carried out under sandy soil conditions using completely randomized experiential design aiming to evaluate the effect of four treatments [T₁: Without any additions (control), T₂: Chicken manure ChM at a rate of 20 ton fed^-1 (equal 250 g pot^-1 as soil addition), T₃: Compost at a rate of 5.0 ton fed^-1 (equal 100 g pot^-1 as soil addition),T₄: Micronutrient mixture (iron, zinc, and magnesium at a rate of 500 mg L^-1 as foliar application] on the soil properties (i.e., pH, EC and bulk density) and growth performance of coriander plants (i.e., fresh and dry weights and plant height). The lowest values of pH were achieved with ChM followed by compost then micronutrient mixture, while the highest pH values were realized with control treatment. The lowest values of EC and bulk density were achieved with compost. Regarding plant performance, the highest values of fresh and dry weights and plant height were achieved with compost followed by ChM then micronutrient mixture, while the lowest values were realized with control treatment.  According to these results, it can be concluded that ChM, compost and micronutrient mixture (iron, zinc, and magnesium) have a unique role in enhancing sand soil properties and raising the coriander tolerance to saline water.