Agricultural potential of soils on toposequence derived from sandstone

Abstract

The potential of soils for growing cassava and sugarcane on toposequence of sandstone low hill at
Krissana subdistrict, Sikhiu district, Nakhon Ratchasima province was undertaken on four locations, summit slope, upper middle slope, lower middle slope, and footslope of low hill. All four soils were classified as Typic Paleustults. They were deep soils with well drained feature. Groundwater depth at the time of sampling was between 125-200 m where the soil on the middle slope had the shallowest ground water level of 125 m. Their topsoils had brown to strong brown colours. The colour of subsoils of soil on the summit was red and became yellow with a presence of mottles in soils located on the middle slope to the lowest position of the study area. Physico-chemical properties of these soils along toposequence were rather similar, having sand to sandy loam textures. Their bulk density was low to high. They were slightly to extremely acid and low fertile. Soil on crestal slope is moderately suitable for cassava (S2en) whereas the rest, situated on the lower landscape, were slightly suitable (S3dne and S3nd). All soils were moderately suitable for sugarcane but with different limitations (S2nm and S2ns). These results indicated that soil potential for the production of both plants depends upon the level of groundwater and soil physical properties involving soil moisture rather than soil chemical properties.