CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOIL
For a satisfactory crop yield, the soil must contain sufficient plant nutrients, such as nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, iron, oxygen, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, etc.
However, Nitrogen is important in all nutrients.
Nitrogen is supplied to the soil by green manure or commercial fertilizers from crib manure or the growth of legumes.
However, Plants absorb nitrogen in the form of soluble nitrate.
Soils with high (0.15 to 0.20 percent) soluble salts are called saline soils, and alternate sodium (more than 15 percent or more than 8.5 percent pH) are called alkaline (or sodic) soils.
Excessive amounts of useful plant nutrients, such as sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate, can be toxic to plants.
Moreover, Saline soils delay or prevent crop germination and reduce the rate and rate of plant growth due to the soil-water solution and the high osmotic pressure that grows between plants.
However, These pressures adversely affect the plant’s ability to absorb water. Alkaline (or sodic) soils have inferior soil structure due to the swelling of soil particles.
This changes the permeability of the soil. The bacterial environment is an important feature of the soil-water-plant relationship.
Video on Chemical properties of soil:
The formation of nitrates from nitrogen compounds is accelerated by favorable bacterial activity.
However, Bacterial action turns organic substances and other chemical compounds into usable forms from plants.
Bacterial activity is directly affected by soil moisture, soil structure, and soil air.
Because wet soils provide better bacterial environments than deep soils, compared to wet climatic soils Their free structure.
Also, due to low precipitation in dry areas, leakage (i.e., drainage of useful salts) is relatively low, and dry soils are rich in mineral plant food nutrients, such as calcium and potassium.
The soils become saline or alkaline because of the chemical composition of the climatic climates that contribute to the formation of soils.
Adequate application of water to the soil surface by rain or irrigation helps to transport the salts from the soil-source area to rivers and oceans.
If proper drainage is not provided, irrigation water with large amounts of salt will make the soil unfit for cultivation.
Salt and alkaline soils can be recovered from:
(i) Reducing the water table,
(ii) excretion of excess salts, and
(iii) Proper management of soil
The amount of salt carried by irrigation water is greater than that brought by irrigation.
Also Read: