elsey" plum is one of the late season cultivars in Egypt, but under environmental conditions, the fruit suffering from poor color development, causing economic losses. This experiment was conducted during 2018 and 2019 seasons on 5-years-old "Kelsey" plum cultivar budded on Nemaguard rootstock and located in a private orchard at El-Nubaria district, El-Behira governorate to study the effect of pre-harvest spraying with ProTone (Active ingredient, Abscisic acid (ABA 10 %)) at 50 and 100 ppm and jasmonic acid at 1000 and 2000 ppm in comparison to the control treatment on coloration, quality and storability. The fruits were stored for 30 days at (0±1 o C and 90-95% relative humidity) then, evaluated in each treatment at 0, 10, 20 and 30 days to determine the changes in fruit quality characteristics during cold storage. Results showed that exogenous application of jasmonic acid at 2000 ppm was the best treatment for improving some fruit quality properties in terms of fruit weight, size, flesh weight, flesh/stone ratio. Moreover, under cold storage this treatment increased fruit anthocyanin, total sugars contents and TSS/Acid ratio, simultaneously reduced fruit weight loss and fruit disorders percentage, in addition gave the intermediate values of fruit firmness.

Laboratory, greenhouse experiments were carried out in Giza Research Station during 2006 and field experiments were carried out at Sids Research Station during 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 to investigate the allelopathic effect of pearl millet and Sudan grass on some winter crops; (wheat, barley, flax, faba bean, Egyptian clover and sugar beet) through 2005 and 2006 seasons. Laboratory experiments showed that, pearl millet and Sudan grass had a significant inhibitory effect on seed germination of all winter crops, except Egyptian clover. Seedling growth of flax, berseem and sugar beet was also inhibited by both extract. Greenhouse experiment indicated that all crops were affected by pearl millet and Sudan grass root extracts. Field experiment results indicated that wheat, barley and sugar beet were only the crops affected by root extracts. Three chemical components were detected and identified in pearl millet root extract; (2 benzylthio 2-imidazoline monohydrochlorid) , (pentyl acetate) and (glucoronic acid sodium salt hydrate) and another three were detected and identified in Sudan grass root extract (2,6 diemethyl cyclohexane methanol), (4-Amidinodinopyriodine menohydrochloride) and (6-Alpha-Larbinozyl-5 , 7-dihydroxy-8-beta dglucopyranozyl flavone).

This work was carried out during two successive seasons (2017 and 2018) to examine the response of ʺCrimson Seedlessʺ grapes to some preharvest treatments i.e. jasmonic acid (JA) at (4 and 8) mM/L and grapefruit seed extract (GSE) at (0.5 and 1) mM/L on some berries quality parameters under cold storage and shelf-life conditions. Vines were sprayed in two application times at (25 th and 30 th August) during 2017 and 2018, respectively. The non-ionic surfactant Tween-20 at 0.05% (v/v) was added to all treatments to reduce the surface tension and increase the contact angle of sprayed droplets. Results showed that both jasmonic acid and grapefruit seed extract treatments at different concentrations were significantly effective in reducing weight loss, berry decay, berry shatter, and total loss in cluster weight percentages during the cold storage period and shelf life as compared to the control. Also, the previous treatments significantly increased berry firmness, soluble solid content (SSC%), SSC/acid ratio, and total anthocyanin contents, where it was caused a significant decrease in total acidity percentage during the cold storage period and shelf life in comparison with control. Furthermore, the lowest values of weight loss, berry shatter, berry decay and total loss in cluster weight were founded by JA at 8 mM and GSE at 1 mM at the end of shelf life in comparison with other treatments. It could be concluded that JA at 8 mM and GSE at 1 mM as preharvest treatments are applicable for improving the storability of ʺCrimson Seedlessʺ grapes and maintaining their quality during cold storage and shelf life.

Two field trials were carried out in the Fayoum Faculty of Agriculture Experimental Farms at Dar El-Ramad (clay alluvial soil) and Demo (loamy sand soil) in the early summer seasons of the years 2002 and 2003. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of some foliar compound fertilizers prepared by the authors in comparison with two commercial foliar fertilizers on two tomato cultivars (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) namely, Wadistar and Nema.1400. Yield and fruit content of total sugars, total acidity, total dissolved solids (TSS), and lycopene were estimated.It was generally observed that the compound fertilizers prepared by the authors had better effect on tomato yield/feddan and most of the studied fruit quality characteristics in comparison with those of either the control (recommendation of the Ministry of Agriculture) or the two tested commercial fertilizers.Results of the present investigation also indicated that the concentrations of Fe,Mn and Zn in plant leaves were considerably greater in Wadistar cv. than those of Nema.1400 cv. plants. This emphasized the differential varietal response of tomato genotypes to micronutrients cations which should be kept in consideration when planning the actual crop requirements of such nutrients. On the other hand, Nema 1400 cv. fruits contained greater concentrations of total sugars, Lycopene and total soluble solids, but less contents of total acidity than Wadistar cv. fruits. Statistical analysis of data showed highly significant positive correlation coefficient between Lycopene content and each of total sugars and TSS concentrations in tomato fruits.Foliar application with the prepared compound"E" (consisted of N, P, K, Fe, Zn, Mn, citric acid, ascorbic acid and the amino acids cystene, lysine and mithionine, resulted in the greatest total yield per feddan and had the most desirable fruit quality characters followed by "D" which contained N, P, K, Fe, Zn, Mn, citric and ascorbic acids without amino acids.According to the results of this investigation it could be generally concluded that the compound"E" prepared by the authors was the most effective among the studied foliar spray fertilizers., however further studies should be conducted on large experimental fields for final recommendation in this respect.