Possibilities of polymeric hydrogel as storage of soil moisture in the zone of unstable moistening in the Krasnodar region

The article presents the results of the water-accumulating properties of polymeric hydrogels and their effects on crop yields in the zone of unstable moistening. The research was carried out for two years. In 2016, the hydrogel was introduced into the soil, before soybean sowing, to a depth of 9-10 cm, at a dose of 400 kg / ha, and the soybean productivity was compared in different versions of the experiments. In 2017, the influence of the aftereffect of laying the polymeric hydrogel on the vegetation process and the yield of winter wheat was assessed in the same section. Based on the conducted studies, it was revealed that in the first year of field experiments, the yield of soybeans in the areas with polymeric absorbent soil moisture exceeded the benchmarks by 8.8%. The aftereffect of the hydrogel was even more effective. The yield of winter wheat increased by 30.0 % in comparison with the control variant. The results of the yields were correlated with the value of the reserves of productive moisture in the soil.