Effect of Water Quality on Infiltration of Loamy Sand Soil Treated with Three Gel-Conditioners

Abstract

The water quality effects on swelling (S), effective mean pore radius (r), water penetrability (), and weighted-mean diffusivity (D) in loamy sand soil columns treated with 0.4% of three gel-conditioners (StaWet, Superhydro, and Hydrogel) were studied. Four waters: salt solution (SS, EC = 42.5 dS m1), distilled (DW), sewage (SW, EC = 1.6 dS m1), and well (WW, EC = 6.4 dS m1) waters were used. For the three gel-conditioned soils, S decreased with increase in water salinity. A critical EC of 6.4 dS m1 was suggested. In general, S of gel-conditioned soils ranked as follows: Super hydro > StaWet = Hydrogel. However, the sensitivity of the gel-conditioner to water salinity is directly related to its swelling capacity. The results indicate that Hydrogel reduced  to sufficient level with irrigation water up to 6.4 dS m1, while superhydro and Jalma reduced  to sufficient level with irrigation water of salinity level of 1.6 dS m 1. The 0.4% StaWet was not enough to reduce  to sufficient level even with distilled water. Effective pore radius was a very reliable predictor of the multiple effects of texture, gel-conditioners, application rates, and water salinity on  and D. Weighted-mean diffusivity may be predicted from knowledge of 