Evaluation of some selected soil properties of a drip irrigated tomato field at different moisture regimes in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Soil properties are important to the development of agricultural crops. This study determined some selected soil properties of a drip  irrigated tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum M.) field at different moisture regime in South-Western Nigeria. The experiment was carried  out using Randomized Complete Block Design with frequency and depth of irrigation application as the main plot and subplot,  respectively in three replicates. Three frequencies (7, 5 and 3 days) and three depths equivalent to 100, 75 and 50% of water requirement  were used. Undisturbed and disturbed soil samples were collected from 0-5, 5-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm soil layers for the determination of  some soil properties (soil texture, organic matter content, bulk density, infiltration rate and saturated hydraulic conductivity) were  determined using standard formulae. Soil Water Content (SWC) monitoring was conducted every two days using a gravimetric technique.  The soil texture was sandy loam for all the soil depths; average value of soil organic matter was highest (1.8%) in the 0-5 cm surface layer and decreased with soil depth; the soil bulk density value before and after irrigation experiment ranged from 1.48 and 1.73  g/cm3 and 1.5 and 1.76 g/cm³ , respectively; there was a rapid reduction in the initial infiltration and final infiltration rate. Saturated  hydraulic conductivity show similar trend although the 20-30 cm layer had the lowest value (50.84 mm/h); the SWC affect bulk density  during the growing season. The study showed that soil properties especially bulk density and organic matter content affect irrigation  water movement at different depth.