An experimental study of alkali soil improvement with coal ash and coal shale

Simulation experiments are adopted in this paper as the main research technique. Cultivating different saline-alkali tolerant plants on culture media with different formulas whose contents of coal ash, coal shale and slime is dissimilar, then constantly observed index of the tested plants such as germination percentage, germinating time, average high level, survival rate, etc. After that we analyzed the improvement of alkali soil with different contents. As the main conclusion of this paper, we found that in the short run, coal shale did better improvement to the alkali soil than coal ash; but in the long run, coal ash did a better job to the improvement of alkali soil than coal shale. According to the result of group experiment, the improved formula which mixed group a+c (including group 1 and 2) for 30% did shorten the germinating time of Tamarix chinensis, as well as promoted the increment growth and growth rate notably. The improved formula worked better for the purpose of improving the alkali soil than other combinations.