Journal of Horticulture
Open Access

Abstract

Impacts of Treated Wastewater Reuse on Some Soil Properties and Production of Gladiolus communis

H Hasan, A Battikhi and M Qrunfleh

Two experiments, one in Open Field (OF) and the other inside a Greenhouse (GH), were conducted at Al-Jubeha Agricultural Research Station –The University of Jordan, to study the effect of Treated Wastewater (TWW) on soil chemical and physical properties. It was also intended to find the effect of TWW on spike quality of gladiolus. Five water treatments were used for both experiments, T1:100% Potable Water (PW); T2:100%TWW; T3:25%PW+75%TWW; T4:50%PW+50%TWW; and T5:75%PW+25%TWW. The design for both experiments was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The results in both experiments showed high accumulation of salts in soils for all treatments with the highest accumulation values in soil T2. Soil organic matter (OM) and N were reduced after planting for all treatments in the GH treatments, but OM remained almost the same in the OF treatments. There was an increase in Zn, Pb, and Cu microelements in soils for all treatments. Soil physical properties such as aggregate stability was reduced for all treatments significantly after planting by about 40% for the GH treatments, and non-significantly by about 3-12% for the OF treatments. Soil water retention curve and pore size distribution did not significantly change after planting for the soil for all treatments in both experiments. Plant properties, from both experiments, were affected by TWW irrigation. Parameters such as: spike length, spike diameter, corm size, number of florets per spike, and the number of cormels per corm were found to be affected by water treatments.

It gave the worst quality for plants that irrigated with 100% TWW for both experiments. Based on results obtained from both experiments, it was found that soils were affected negatively by TWW irrigation for their chemical and physical properties. Use of TWW when mixed with some PW for irrigation of non-edible plants such as cut flowers gave better results than using PW alone.