Abstract
The objective of the present work was to investigate the effect of magnetized saline water (water passed through magnetic carefree) on yield of sunflower and soil. salinity. A field experiment was conducted in clay loam soil planted to sunflower in the season 1999. Irrigation treatments included three types of water: river water (RW), saline well water (SW), and magnetized saline water (conditioning characteristics) (MSW) with electrical conductivity of 1.4, 5.8, 5.8 dS/m, respectively. A net of irrigation pipes was installed for river water and saline water. Also, the system of magnetic care free of 2 inches in diameter was installed in by-pass with the saline water line. Irrigation water was applied based on depletion of 30-40% of available water using the soil neutron moisture meter. At the end of season, estimation was made for yield of seed, oil, and soil salinity.
The use of carefree system caused a significant reduction in the impact of SW on yield. The reduction in yield was 32.8% with the magnetized SW compared with a reduction of 56.1% with the use of SW. irrigation water requirements for sunflower ranged between 886 and 903 mm under the irrigation treatments. Water use efficiency values were in the same direction and the highest was 037 kg/m(3) under RW and the lowest 0.19 kg/m(3) under SW, however, it was 0.25 kg/m(3) under the magnetized SW. The use of either SW water or magnetized SW caused significant reduction in soil salinity as compared with RW. No significant differences were observed in soil salinity between the SW and the magnetized saline water.