Retention of Moisture in Soil With Organic Amendments Cultivated with Amaranthus Hypochondriacus

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different organic amendments (corn stubble and amaranth stubble, goat manure, compost, and green fertilizer (Medicago sativa)), alone and in combination with a hydrogel, into the moisture retention of the soil, deposited over the soil surface and mixed with surface soil, making a total of 14 treatments. To test their effects, the amaranth plants (Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.), were subjected to different periods of drought. Considered as tolerant to the drought and estimating their vegetative development for leaf production, the treatments were proven under random arrays with 10 repetitions. The agronomic variables considered were, height and survival of the plants as well as their stem diameter. The amendments do not present significant effects on the retention of moisture at 5 cm soil depth. In relation to the vegetative parameters, the hydrogel application demonstrates significant statistical differences for the survey of the plants (p>0.05). The amendments evaluated under the organic padding conditions with corn stubble, in conjunction with the green Medicago sativa fertilizer and the corn stubble mixed with soil, were the treatments which present the best results, in both stem diameter and plant height (Tukey‘s test, α=0.05). All the variables show significant statistical differences according to the drought periods of between 0 and 15 days, applied to the different essays.