Impact Of Biochar On Some Physical Traits Of Soil And Variation Of Irrigation And Biochar Levels On Growth And Yield Of Lettuce (Lactuca Sativa L.)

Abstract

The experimental design aimed to evaluate the effects and interactions among three factors that including drip irrigation regimes with three levels ( 50%, 75%, and 100% ) of the soil’s field capacity, Biochar incorporation at two levels (0% and 0.5% by weight), and two imported lettuce cultivars (Nader and Rama). Biochar was integrated into the soil during land preparation and was also used during the seedling establishment phase prior to transplanting. The factorial experiment comprised 12 treatment combinations derived from the three factors (3 × 2 × 2), and each treatment was replicated three times, yielding 36 experimental units in total. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a split-plot arrangement was employed. The main plots were allocated to the lettuce cultivars, while subplots received random combinations of irrigation levels and biochar treatments. The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis based on the adopted experimental layout.

Results were summarized as follows: Addition of biochar at a rate of 0.5% to soil resulted in a significant decrease in bulk density, accompanied by increases in soil porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity compared to the control treatment without biochar. Furthermore, biochar application led to significant improvements in productivity traits and overall yield,. The studied productivity parameters specifically head weight and total head yield showed significant enhancements under both 75% and 100% field capacity irrigation levels compared to the 50% field capacity treatment. Additionally, the Rama cultivar demonstrated a statistically superior performance over the Nader cultivar across all measured traits.