This study was carried out at Al-Kanater Research Station, El-Kaluobia Governorate during the two successive seasons of 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, to investigate the effect of magnetized water on minimizing strawberry mineral fertilization. Four treatments were used i.e., tap water plus 100 % NPK (control), magnetized water plus 50 % NPK, magnetized water plus 75 % NPK and magnetized water plus 100 % NPK of the recommended mineral fertilization rates. Data were recorded on some vegetative growth characters, early and total fruit yield, some physical and chemical fruit quality parameters and macro and micro elements in leaves. Results indicated that irrigation with magnetized water plus 50% NPK of the recommended fertilization rate showed the highest values of total chlorophyll, total carbohydrates, early and total yield, fruit firmness, total soluble solids in fruits and water use efficiency as compared with control. Moreover, magnetized water plus 75% NPK of the recommended rate of mineral fertilization showed the highest values of NPK and manganese contents. In general ascorbic acid was decreased by using magnetized water. The study recommend using 50 % of the recommended NPK fertilization rates plus magnetized water to increase yield and quality of strawberry.

Laboratory and field studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of three inert dusts, diatomaceous earth, kaolin and katelsous as wheat grain protectants against some stored grain insects, i.e., Sitophilus oryzae, Rhizopertha domininca and Tribolium confusum. Inert dusts were mixed with wheat grain in the laboratory at different concentrations. Data obtained from the laboratory experiment showed that the LC50, s of diatomaceous earth, kaolin and katelsous were 0.234, 0.071 and 0.235% w/w, 6.033, 6.306 and 8.938% w/w and 0.495, 0.496 and 103.875% w/w against S. oryzae, R. dominica and T. confusum, respectively one day after treatment. Diatomaceous earth was more effective than the other tested materials where it achieved complete mortality for the three tested insects after two days of treatment at the rate of 0.5% w/w. Results also showed that kaolin and katelsous act slowly on the tested insects, where the higher rates of 8% w/w for kaolin and 0.4% w/w for katelsous gave complete mortality after one week post treatment. For the field study (at farmers , storages), the higher concentrations (0.5, 8 and 0.4% w/w) of the three dusts, diatomaceous earth, kaolin and katelsous, respectively obtained from laboratory experiment were admixed with wheat grain and stored for 4 months at the farms. For the field experiment, the results showed that diatomaceous earth gave 100%, 91.6% and 98.2% mortality against the three tested insects, respectively after 4 months of storage at a concentration of 0.5% w/w at 7 th day of exposure. Kaolin at 8% w/w showed that adult mortality decreased from 100% at zero time of storage after 5 days of exposure to 13.7%, 27.1% and 16.9 at 4 months of storage after the same period of exposure against the three tested insects respectively. At zero time of storage, katelsous at a rate of 0.4% w/w showed the percent mortalities of 100%, 100% and 95.7% against the three tested insects, respectively at 5 days of exposure. The residual effect after 4 months of storage decreased to 14.3%, 52.9% and 35.6% mortality against the three insects, respectively at the same time of exposure. In general the results obtained showed that the diatomaceous earth had the most activity followed by katelsous and kaolin against the three tested insects. Also, the degree of effectiveness decreased with the increasing of storage periods.

This study was carried out at the Barrage Horticulture Research Station, Qaluobia Governorate, and the Strawberry Improvement Center, Faculty of Agric., Ain Shams Univ. during the period from 2005 to 2009. The aim of this study was to produce and selected some local promising strawberry hybrids from the commercial cultivars through the traditional crossing method. Four potential cultivars i.e., Sweet Charlie, Diamonte, Camarosa and Vantana were used in the crossing and six hybrids were chosen and evaluated in the nursery stage and also for yield and fruit quality in two seasons. The study aimed also to determine the average degree of heterosis (ADH) regarding some horticultural characters viz., yield component, and fruit physical and chemical characteristic for the obtained hybrids. This knowledge about this sort of genetics would be helpful to the plant breeder for planning a successful breeding program. Results revealed that hybrid K102 (Kanater 102) exhibited the highest values in total yield, average fruit weight, fruit firmness and total soluble solids content as compared with its parents suggesting hybrid vigor for these traits. Hybrid K101 showed the highest values of average fruit weight, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid content and the lowest total acidity as compared with the parents. Also, K105 gave the highest values of number of fresh and dormant transplants and the lowest values of total acidity. Results indicate also that K 106 showed the highest values of total plant yield and average fruit weight as compared with the parental cultivars. Hybrids, K103 and K107 showed the highest values in fruit firmness and average fruit weight respectively as compared with the parents. Also, Sweet Charlie and Camarosa parents were the highest in early yield per plant and average fruit weight respectively. In general, the results on heterosis showed that most produced hybrids exhibited higher values than the better parent concerning most studied traits. The observed hybrid vigor for these traits encourages the production of F1 hybrids in strawberry for commercial production. The study concludes that six new local strawberry hybrids have been produced with high productivity and desirable eating quality than their parents.

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to study the effect of runners' removal rates beside mothers full removal "no runners", five runners left, ten runners left and Without runners' removal and foliar spray of gibberellic acid 0 ppm, 25 ppm and 50 ppm and their interactions on vegetative growth, chemical properties, physiological traits, yield and quality of strawberry "Fortuna cv." planted under mixed planting system which fixed many runners beside mother plant with different density. Gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) was sprayed three time in 30 days intervals. The experimental design was a split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The result indicated that foliar application of 25 ppm of gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) with removing all runners caused an increase in plant height, size, weight and shape index of the fruits. gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) at 25 ppm gave also the highest number of early fruits and early yield during both seasons, GA 3 also gave the highest value of TSS, vitamin C, number of leaves, number of fruits and the yield too. The study shows that it's better to use gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) with 25 ppm to spray the strawberry fruits with removing all the runners that exist beside the mother plant and that's to increase the vegetative growth and to improve the yield qualities.