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Potato is an economically important vegetable crop in Egypt. Weed infestation, especially broad-leafed, during the vegetative growth stage substantially affects both crop yield and tuber quality. In the current study, the impact of new ready-mix pre-emergent herbicides on broadleaf weeds, tuber yield, and quality was evaluated. The two-year field experiment comprised the following treatments: (1) Un-weeded control, (2) Hand hoeing, (3) Sencor, (4) Ecopart, (5) Zeus, (6) Kroki, and (7) Flomex. The results showed that weed control treatments significantly reduced the weed density compared to un-weeded control and the herbicides efficacy reached over 90%. The herbicidal treatments also significantly increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes peroxidases (POX) and catalase (CAT) and improved the non-enzymatic antioxidant (carotenoids) compared to un-weeded control. Conversely, the higher content of malondialdehyde (MDA) in potato leaves was obtained for un-weeded control. Moreover, weed control treatments caused significant enhancement in plant growth parameters, yield, and its components in addition to tuber quality of potato. Compared to the un-weeded control, maximum tuber yield was observed in Flomex followed by Ecopart, Kroki, Zeus, and Sencor, respectively. The higher number of tubers and total yield were recorded in plants treated with Flomex plus compared to all the other treatments. Higher content of total soluble sugar, total soluble protein, and total starch content was observed in weed control treatments compared with un-weeded control. Based on Pearson’s correlation and heatmap analysis, the changes in agro-physiological parameters data are linked to the herbicidal treatments. The results indicate that the applied herbicides could be alternative products for Sencor and an option for controlling broadleaved weeds. However, further studies are needed to ensure their efficacy and safety under other conditions.

Biochar application is a promising sustainable strategy for enhancing soil properties thus crop production. However, biochar application to soil certainly alters its biological and physical properties, and could require extra costs. Therefore, biochar suitability to agroecosystems must be proactively estimated. The advantage of biochar addition to poor fertile or weathered soils has been well studies, however, its feasibility to fertile soil under low quality (saline) irrigation water was not frequently studied. Consequently, this work investigates the hypothesis of whether the application of biochar at a rate of 4.8 tons/ha to fertile soil (Nile Valley, Giza, Egypt) would ameliorate the negative effects of saline irrigation regime (3000 ppm) on tomato crop and soil. The results of two seasons experiments showed that saline irrigation significantly reduced tomato crop yield by an average reduction ratio of 51%, and biochar addition could not compensate such reduction. Furthermore, biochar did not reduce accumulated Na+ in fruits or roots. Tomato fruits produced from biochar-added soil were lower in TSS levels (41.7% reduction ratio) yet larger in diameter by approximately 1.5-fold increase. Interestingly, biochar addition into soil greatly promotes the length of stem-borne lateral roots and elevates the expression of LeNR (encodes nitrate reductase enzyme) in leaves yet under fresh irrigation regime. For soil properties, biochar application enhanced the soil properties under either saline or fresh water irrigation conditions. Collectively, it is assumed that biochar application to fertile soil in Nile Valley of Egypt could not alleviate tomato fruits yield reduction affected by applied saline irrigation regime.

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