No abstract

Two field experiments were carried out during the two successive seasons of 2016/17 and 2017/18 at Nubassed sector, West Nubariya, Egypt, (latitude 30° 47′ N and longitude 30° 25′ E), El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt to study the influence of mineral K-fertilizer and bio-K (containing Potassium Solubilizing Bacteria KSB-Frateuria aurantia) on sugar beet physiological, qualitative and productivity attributes. Randomized Complete Block Design was used in a split split-plot distribution, with three replications. Three polygerm sugar beet varieties namely MK 4016, Samba and Gloria, allocated in the main plots, three potassium fertilizer rates (0, 24 and 48 kg K 2 O/fed) randomly distributed in the sub-plots and two KSB treatments (KSB 0 : uninoculated and KSb 1 : inoculated with bacteria) randomly applied in the sub-subplots. The most important results indicated that; Gloria variety significantly surpassed the other two varieties in root length, root diameter, root fresh weight, root yield (ton/fed) and recoverable sugar yield (ton/fed). Growing sugar beet under 48 kg K 2 O/fed recorded the highest values of LAI (at 135 days), root length, root diameter, leaf K content, sucrose %, root K + content, sugar loss in molasses%, root fresh weight, root yield, top yield, recoverable sugar yield, recoverable sugar percent and harvest index in comparing with 0 and 24 kg K 2 O/fed. The inoculation of sugar beet with KSB significantly increased root length, root diameter, sucrose%, root fresh weight, root yield, top yield and recoverable sugar yield compared with uninoculated treatment. The interaction between potassium fertilizer rates × inoculation with KSB showed that, there were insignificant differences between applying 24 kg K 2 O/fed × inoculation with KSB and with 48 kg K 2 O/fed × uninoculation on root fresh weight, sucrose% and recoverable sugar yield in both seasons. As a result of the present study it might be concluded that, growing sugar beet under the application of 48 kg K2O/fed × inoculation with KSB produced the highest root length, root diameter, sucrose%, root fresh weight, root yield, and recoverable sugar yield in both seasons of this study.

Four experiments were conducted at El-Sabahia (31°, 12N latitude), Alexandria, Egypt Sugar Cane Research Station to estimate the variability, heritability and flowering ability of eighty eight sugar cane germplasm. All experiments were planted in mid-March 2013 and their design was randomized complete block with three replicates. Variability in important traits among tested germplasm was estimated using genotypic and phenotypic variance in addition to genotypic and phenotypic coefficients and broad sense heritability. Flowering ability was determined using the number and percentage variation of flowering germplasm and flowering dates. The results showed that the magnitude of genotypic and environmental variance was the highest in number of millable cane character and the minimum value was found in stalk diameter in plant crop and both ratoon crops. Maximum genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were exhibited by cane yield and number of millable cane in plant and both ratoon crops, also in single stalk weight and sugar yield in both ration crops. Among quality characters lowest values for both coefficients were obtained by purity percent in plant and both ratoon crops. In the present experiment, moderate to high heritability estimates were observed for all characters. The results indicated that the selection is more effective in plant and both ratoon crops based on yield contributing characters having high PCV, GCV and heritability along with suitable mean value. The flowering occurred in most of studied germplasm under natural environment in El-Sabahia area but the percentage of flowered germplasm differed among studied seasons. The flowering in sugarcane germplasm commenced from November and ended up to June. Most of the germplasm flowered during December at the three seasons and followed by February at plant crop, January and February at first ratoon crop and January and March at second ratoon crop. The tested germplasm were divided into 8 groups according to their flower ability.

Two field experiments were carried out in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons at Nubaria Research Station, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt to study the response of three sugar beet cultivars to the foliar nutrition with pigeon manure tea (PMT) in combination with soil N fertilizer and its effect on yield, yield components, chemical constituents and some physiological and genetical parameters. A split plot arrangement in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications was used. Three polygerm sugar beet cultivars namely SN-626, NH-627 and Hercule were randomly distributed in the main plots, while the four combinations of PMT and N fertilizer were randomly distributed in the sub-plots, it was as follows; 80 kg N/fed (recommended level) was given as soil application, without PMT (check treatment) (C1), foliar application of 2.5% PMT + soil addition of 40 kg N/fed (C2), foliar application of 5% PMT + soil addition of 40 kg N/fed (C3) and foliar application of 10% PMT + soil addition of 40 kg N/fed (C4). The results illustrated that fertilizing the tested cultivars with (C4) treatment attained the highest mean of sugar yield compared with (C2) and/or (C3), in the two seasons. The three cultivars showed that the highest and the least values of root, top, sugar yields and sucrose% were produced from SN-626 and Hercule cultivar, respectively, in both seasons. Genotypic and phenotypic variances, heritability and coefficient of variance as percent of means were estimated for the studied traits. Maximum heritability values were obtained for root diameter followed by top yield. Meanwhile, it was moderate for sugar yield, sucrose% and root yield, while the minimum values of heritability were recorded by total soluble solids and purity percentages. Besides, different genetic coefficient of variance as percent of mean, as well as high genetic variability and high range of variations were detected. Path-coefficient analysis revealed that the improvement of different genotypes sugar yield can alter the relative importance of root yield, sucrose% and purity%. Under conditions of the present work, it can be recommended that growing SN-626 variety fertilized with (C4) treatment produced the highest sugar yield/fed with no significant difference from treating the same variety with C1 (recommended level). Also, the data suggest that significant improvement could be achieved by increasing purity as well as sucrose percentages to increase sugar yield.