Changes of Soil Physical Properties by Manured Sorghum Residues Incorporation

Although sorghum residue production was estimated to be $8{\sim}10Mg\;ha^{-1}$, most sorghum straw was used to be burnt or removed after harvest. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of the incorporation of manured sorghum residues on soil physical properties from 2010 to 2012 in the converted paddy field. Five treatment with 3 replication consisted of control, inorganic fertilizer (NPK), manured residues, sorghum stover and sawdust manure. The incorporation level of organic source was $10Mg\;ha^{-1}$ without inorganic fertilizer NPK. The investigated physical parameters were bulk density (BD), porosity, water stability aggregate (WSA), water infiltration rater (WIR), penetration resistance (PR) and soil water retention characteristics (WRC) with soil depth. The incorporation of manured sorghum residues improved WIR significantly over inorganic fertilizer (NPK), sorghum residues and sawdust manure. The BD by incorporating with manured residues on sorghum was reduced significantly with crop residue over plot of NPK and sawdust. Significant increase in WSA was observed with stubble incorporation alone or manured sorghum residues. Soil WRC were significantly enhanced with manured sorghum residue incorporated without NPK. The average PR at 0~15 cm was 0.54 MPa for manured sorghum residues. For sawdust manure plot it was 0.42 MPa, for Sawdust manure plot 0.39 MPa and for NPK plot 0.54 MPa.