Effect of soil alkalinity on plant growth, yield and oil content of sesamum

摘要

Alkali soils contain sufficient exchangeable sodium to retard the plant growth adversely. In addition to genetic characteristics for alkali tolerance, physiological changes including chemical composition of the plant to some extent modify themselvesto survive Under alkali conditions (Richards, 1954). Although sesamum is widely grown under rice fallow in sodic soils, its growth and biochemical attributes and oil content in relation to sodicity has not been studied. Hence, a study was conducted to find out the effect of sodicity on growth, yield and oil content of sesamum. The experiment was conducted at Agricultural College & Research Institute, Trichy during 1996-1997 with three different levels of ESP in pots containing 20 kg soil. Soils from thedifferent parts of the Trichy district with different range of sodicity were collected and analysed. The data are furnished below.