Rizaldy Lamojer, Tim Medina, John Tampo, Jr.
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
Seeds of IR 64 rice variety were planted on three replicates of the four clay loams founds in Iloilo province only. The clay loams were the following: Alimodian, from the town of Alimodia; Bantog, from the town of Calinog; Sta. Rita from Jaro, Iloilo; and Barotac, from the town of Estancia. This was done to determine which day clay loam maximizes the potentials of agronimic growth and yield of the rice variety.
The soil samples’ physical and chemical characteristics were first determined before the actual planting for getting an accurate result of their original state and condition. The group using several methodologies researched analyzed the samples. Barotac clay loam was observed to be the most porous of all the samples with 60.03 plus minus 2.57 porosity. Being the most porous, Barotac clay loam held the most amount of water with 23.47 plus minus 5.12 soil moisture. The densest of the soil samples was Sta. Rita with density of 1289.04 plus minus 35.05.53.88% humus. The warmest of the clay loams was Bantog, registering 28.67 plus minus 0.58 in the laboratory thermometer. All of the clay loams were structure less, meaning no noticeable peds, except the Alimodian clay loams which was moderately structured.
Through chemical analyses, all the soil samples were observed to be very high in terms of nitrogen content. They only varied with their amounts of phosphorus. Alimodian and Sta. Rita clay loams were noticed to be having an adequate amount of phosphorus while the Bantog and Barotac clay loams were very low in phosphorus content.
Bantog clay loam was observed to be best suited for maximizing the growth potentials of the IR 64 rice variety- maximizing the IR 64 rice plats’ height up to 454.33 plus minus 116.64 cm after 60 days. This was brought about by the acidity, moisture, porosity, warmth and lesser bulk density of the clay loam- the physical and chemical characteristics of the clay loam which stood above the others.