Soil Gel-Conditioner: I. Selection of appropriate concentration and treated upper layer depth for sandy soil under sprinkler infiltration

Two experiments were carried out to select the appropriate concentrations of Aquasorb gel-conditioner suitable for sprinkler infiltration, without causing surface sealing and the resulted water ponding. The first one was conducted on sandy soil columns treated uniformly with Aquasorb at four concentrations (Q: 0.0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9% (on dry weight basis) under ponded infiltration. The purpose of this experiment was to test the absorbing and retention power of the conditioner especially at high concentration (0.9%). The second ex¬periment was carried out using sandy soil columns treated uniformly with the high concentrations of Aquasorb, namely 0.6 and 0.9% under different sprinkler water application rates (R). The ponded infiltration experiment revealed that Aquasorb condi¬tioner possesses a high super absorbing and retention power for water especially at high concentration (0.9%). While the sprinkler infiltration experiment revealed that the concentration of Aquasorb was the main dominant variable affecting surface sealing rather than the kinetic energy at the soil surface. Thus it was suggested that the maximum Aquasorb concentration to be used is 0.6% conjugated with 20 cm depth as a maximum treated upper layer depth for sprinkler infiltration