Agronomy

Water deficit is the most important environmental factors greatly limiting crop production worldwide. A field experiment was carried out to study the effect of irrigation withholding treatments i.e. control treatment (7 irrigations), withholding last, last two and last three irrigations (6, 5 and 4 irrigations, respectively), potassium levels (0, 24, 48 and 72 kg K2O/fed) and their interaction on forage yields, yield components and chemical constituents of fodder beet cv. Voroshenger. Water stress during maturity stage through withholding last, last two or last three irrigations markedly reduced forage yields and its components as well as crude protein (CP%), crude fiber (CF%), potassium (K%), digestible crude protein (DCP%). In contrary, gradual increases in total soluble solids (TSS%) and total digestible nutrients (TDN%) were resulted from irrigation withholding treatments. Increasing potassium level up to 72 kg K2O/fed produced highest forage yields and its components as well as CP%, CF%, K%, DCP%. Wile, without potassium fertilization was recorded highest TDN%. Water consumptive use values were 49.46, 42.75, 37.1, and 35.58 for irrigation withholding treatments, respectively. Average of crop coefficient (Kc) was 0.97 and water use efficiency (WUE) was 17.25 Kg/m 3 for withholding last irrigation treatment. It could be recommended that withholding the last irrigation (6 irrigations) and compensated the reduction in forage yields through fertilizing with 48 kg K2O, which overtook the treatment by most fodder beet farmers (7 irrigations without potassium fertilization) under the environmental conditions of El-Serw district, Damietta Governorate, Egypt.

Barley is one of the major cereal crops cultivated in new reclaimed sandy soils. In order to decrease nitrogen pollution in barley fields, an trail was conducted to compensate barley inorganic nitrogen needs by organic manure under newly reclaimed sandy saline soils in North Nile Delta during 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons at Experimental Station Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt. A strip-plot design with four replicates was used. The vertical plots were occupied with three barley cultivars (Giza 129, Giza 130 and Giza 131). While, the horizontal-plots were devoted to five combination treatments of inorganic nitrogen and poultry manure i.e. 100% inorganic nitrogen, 75% inorganic nitrogen + 25 % poultry manure, 50% inorganic nitrogen + 50 % poultry manure, 25% inorganic nitrogen + 75 % poultry manure and 100 % poultry manure.
The results indicated that Giza 131cultivar surpassed other studied cultivars (Giza 129, Giza 130 cultivars) in all studied characters and recorded the maximum values in both seasons. Application of 75% inorganic nitrogen plus 25% poultry manure combination treatment recorded the highest values of all studied characters, followed by 100% inorganic nitrogen fertilizer, then 50% inorganic nitrogen and 25% poultry manure combination treatment, 25% inorganic nitrogen and 75% poultry manure combination treatment, and lastly 100% poultry manure only in both seasons.
On the basis of the results obtained, maximum grain and straw yields of barley resulted by fertilizing Giza 131 cultivar with 75% inorganic nitrogen beside 25% poultry manure under sandy saline soils in North Nile Delta.

Shedding phenomena of field bean plant usually took place in serious values especially for buds, flowers and immature pods leading to a great reduction in seed yield. Thus, the main objective of this study was to study the performance of some field bean cultivars under sowing dates and foliar treatments. Field experiments were carried out during 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons to find out the performance of cultivars (Sakha 1, Sakha 2 and Giza 3 improved) under sowing dates (15th October, 1st November and 15th November) and foliar treatments (without, spraying with water, yeast extract, GA3 and mixture of yeast extract + GA3). Each sowing date was performed in a separate experiment. Every experiment was carried out in strip-plot design with four replications. The vertical plots were assigned to cultivars, and the horizontal plots were occupied with foliar treatments. Sowing on 1st November gave highest growth parameters, seed yield and its components and protein %. However, Sowing on 15th October produced highest shedding % and lowest values of other characters. Sakha 1 cultivar significantly superior Sakha 2 and Giza 3 improved and recorded highest values of all studied characters. Sakha 2 cultivar recorded highest percentages of shedding. Foliar spraying with mixture of yeast extract and GA3 surpassed other foliar treatments and resulted in highest values of all studied characters, excluding shedding percentage. Sowing Sakha 1 cultivar on 1st November and spraying with mixture of yeast extract + GA3 reducing shedding percentage and maximizing field bean seed productivity.

Water deficit is the most important environmental factors greatly limiting crop production worldwide. A field experiment was carried out to study the effect of irrigation withholding treatments i.e. control treatment (7 irrigations), withholding last, last two and last three irrigations (6, 5 and 4 irrigations, respectively), potassium levels (0, 24, 48 and 72 kg K2O/fed) and their interaction on forage yields, yield components and chemical constituents of fodder beet cv. Voroshenger. Water stress during maturity stage through withholding last, last two or last three irrigations markedly reduced forage yields and its components as well as crude protein (CP%), crude fiber (CF%), potassium (K%), digestible crude protein (DCP%). In contrary, gradual increases in total soluble solids (TSS%) and total digestible nutrients (TDN%) were resulted from irrigation withholding treatments. Increasing potassium level up to 72 kg K2O/fed produced highest forage yields and its components as well as CP%, CF%, K%, DCP%. Wile, without potassium fertilization was recorded highest TDN%. Water consumptive use values were 49.46, 42.75, 37.1, and 35.58 for irrigation withholding treatments, respectively. Average of crop coefficient (Kc) was 0.97 and water use efficiency (WUE) was 17.25 Kg/m 3 for withholding last irrigation treatment. It could be recommended that withholding the last irrigation (6 irrigations) and compensated the reduction in forage yields through fertilizing with 48 kg K2O, which overtook the treatment by most fodder beet farmers (7 irrigations without potassium fertilization) under the environmental conditions of El-Serw district, Damietta Governorate, Egypt.

In order to investigate the effects of osmotic stress on forage sorghum varieties at critical stage of germination to salinity stress. A study was conducted at the Seed Technology Laboratory of Mansoura University, Egypt during April to June 2012. Three forage sorghum cultivars (Mabrouk, Horas, Pionner-8581) were evaluated in the salinity concentrations of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 dSm -1 NaCl. Four parameters namely final germination percentage, germination index, energy of germination and seedling vigour index were estimated. Eight seedling characters namely shoot and root length, shoot and root foliage weight, shoot and root dry weight, seedling height reduction and relative seedling dry weight were measured. Forage sorghum cultivars significantly varied in means of final germination percentage, germination index, seedling vigor index, energy of germination, shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh weights, shoot and root dry weights, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight. Horas cultivar surpassed other cultivars in all of the studied characters followed by Mabrouk cultivar which came in the second rank, while Pioneer 858 cultivar came in the last rank. Pioneer 858 cultivar recorded highest values of seedling height reduction and relative dry weight followed by Mabrouk cultivar, while, Horas cultivar came in the last rank for both characters. Increasing salinity levels from 0 to 15 dSm -1 significantly decreased germination percentage, germination index, seedling vigor index, energy of germination, shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh weights, shoot and root dry weights and relative dry weight, the control treatment recorded the highest averages of these characters. Thus, the lowest averages of these characters were recorded with highest salinity levels i.e. 15 dSm -1 . Seedling height reduction percentage was increased significantly with increasing salinity levels from 0 to 15 dSm -1 . Results clearly showed that germination index, seedling vigor index, shoot and root lengths, shoot and root fresh weights, shoot and root dry weights, seedling height reduction and relative dry weight significantly affected by the interaction between forage sorghum cultivars and salinity concentrations. It could be concluded that Hoars cultivar was more tolerant to salinity stress followed by Mabrouk cultivars which must be put in breeding program of forage sorghum under salinity conditions.