Reclamation of abandoned shrimp pond soils in southern Thailand for cultivation of Mauritius grass (Brachiaria mutica).

A study on soil reclamation for cultivation of Mauritius grass was conducted on soils obtained from abandoned shrimp ponds at Ranote District, Songkhla Province, southern Thailand. A glass house experiment on the reclamation of the soils included desalination by leaching soils using various amounts of deionised water, rice husk, plant nutrients and gypsum as well as an omission pot trial experiment. The result showed that Mauritius grass survived in the treatment with > or = 15 L of water, > or = 2% of rice husk with gypsum added or > or = 8% of rice husk without gypsum added. The yield of Mauritius grass increased with increases in the amounts of water for desalination and rice husk. Thus, the highest yield of grass with a height of 148.3 cm, 12.7 tillers/pot and dry weight of 46.43 g/pot was observed in the gypsum added treatment with the highest amount of water and rice husk (25 L of water and 8% by weight of rice husk). Therefore, salinity and unfavourable structure of the abandoned pond soils were major factors governing the survival ability and growth of the grass. The omission pot trial experiment revealed that growth of the grass responded to the application of P, Ca, Mg and S, though existing amounts of such plant nutrient elements in the soils were adequate for plant growth. The anomalous characteristics were probably explained by soil pH, salinity and imbalance of plant nutrient elements.