Abstract

Egypt is an agrarian economy and as such requires fertile soils for attaining and maintaining the self-sufficiency in food production. Potassium fertilizers are playing an important role in plant production. There is practically no production of K in the country. Egypt is dependent on imports to meet its annual requirements of K. In order to reduce the dependence on imported K, glauconite as à K mineral, has been identified as an indigenous alternative source of K. In Egypt, huge resources of glauconite are found in many localities in the Western Desert, New valley Governorate. Pot experiment was carried out in Soil Sci. Dept., Faculty of Agric., Minia Univ., Alminia, Egypt. To evaluate the glauconite as a natural alternative source for potassium. Gluaconite deposits were collected from Al-Bahria Oasis, New valley, Egypt. In this experiment, corn grains were planted to study the effect of glauconite on growth, water use, and N, P and K uptake. Glauconite was applied to the sandy soil at six rates (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 Mgha-1), Additional treatment was involved in this experiment including the recommended K fertilizer for comparison. In general, treating the sandysoil with the different application rates of glauconite increased the vegetative growth parameters (plant height, fresh and dry weights), water use efficiency and uptake of N, P, and K by corn plant grown in the treated sandy soil, compared with the untreated control. The increase in almost the studied parameters, was proportional to the increase in the application rate of glauconite up to 15 Mgha-1. It could be concluded that it is possible using the glauconite at application rate of 15 Mgha-1 as an alternative source of potassium in sandy soils in Egypt. Glauconite application in the field is economic as well as eco-friendly as there is no losses of nutrients from this mineral and its price is cheaper than the imported potash.

Keywords: Sandy soil; Glauconite; Potasstum; Corn; Potash import