This experiment was done under a plastic greenhouse to investigate the growth, fruit quality parameters and yield of sweet pepper plants grown under two different plastic mulch color and three different treatments of Nostoc clacicola fertilizations. The plastic mulch treatments were transparent polyethylene and white polyethylene with 100 microns thickness. Bare soil (uncovered soil) was used as a control. Transparent and white polyethylene was laid after the establishment of the double rows (0.80 m width). Beds were manually installed to correspond to treatments and Nostoc clacicola fertilization treatments: Nostoc clacicola foliar fertilization, Nostoc clacicola soil fertilization and Nostoc clacicola foliar with soil fertilization (spray+ Soil). Vegetative growth (plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves/ plants, number of branches/ plants, leaves fresh weight and leaf area), as well as fruit yield and quality (total yield, fruit length and fruit diameter), chemical contents (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Leaves dry matter% and Vitamin C) of sweet pepper (Capsicum species) Gedeon F1 Hybrid. Obtained results revealed that using transparent plastic mulch with a combination of Nostoc clacicola foliar and soil fertilization enhanced all vegetative growth measurements and increased all assayed chemical constituents of plant leaves, as well as increasing total fruit yield and components.

his study was carried out to investigate the possibility of using cut rice straw, as organic nursery media, compared to the traditional peatmoss, to produce seedlings for beans, cucumber, tomatoes, cantaloupe, zucchini, cabbage and lettuce. The experimental design was five treatments with three replicates each. The used substrates were the traditional peatmoss and vermiculite 1:1 (v/v) compared with mixtures between the traditional substrate and different percentage of cut rice straw (< 2 mm), from 25% up to 100% (v/v). The following parameters were measured: seedling dry weight, seedling fresh weight, seedling stem diameter, length of seedling, seedling leaf area, number of leaves, and nutrient content of the seedlings (NPK). Results revealed that the best treatment was the mixture of 50% traditional nursery substrate and the 50% rice straw mixture with traditional nursery substrate. It was concluded that cut rice straw could be used as an organic nursery media mixed with traditional one. This will help reducing environmental pollution caused by burning the huge amount of rice straw every year in Egyptian farms.

This study was conducted to study the possibility of partial replacement of wheat flour with SRB to prepare high nutritive value cupcake and pan bread and partial replacement of yellow corn flour with RBPC to prepare value-added tortilla. Quality characteristics of the cupcake, pan bread and tortilla were evaluated. The RBPC had higher crude protein and lower crude fat, total ash, total carbohydrates contents, and caloric value than SRB. The RBPC had higher levels of essential amino acids than SRB. The RBPC had higher water absorption, oil absorption, foaming capacity, foaming stability and emulsifying stability and lower bulk density than SRB. The proximate composition, height, weight, volume, specific volume, specific gravity, in-vitro protein digestibility and textural profile of cupcake and pan bread were affected by increasing the level of SRB in the cupcake and pan bread formulas. Cupcake and pan bread prepared with SRB had darker crust and crumb colors than the control. Sensoryproperties of the cupcake and pan bread prepared with 5% SRB were similar to the control. The crude protein, total ash and alkaline water retention capacity of tortilla were increased by increasing the level of RBPC. However, total carbohydrates, crude fat and crude fiber had an opposite trend. Tortilla prepared with RBPC had darker color than the control tortilla. Tortilla prepared with 7.5% RBPC had higher lysine (27.31%) and tryptophan (33.33%) than control tortilla. In-vitro protein digestibility of tortilla was significantly increased by increasing the RBPC up to 7.5%. The tortilla prepared with 7.5% RBPC had higher rating score of overall acceptability than control tortilla.

This study was conducted to study the possibility of partial replacement of wheat flour with SRB to prepare high nutritive value cupcake and pan bread and partial replacement of yellow corn flour with RBPC to prepare value-added tortilla. Quality characteristics of the cupcake, pan bread and tortilla were evaluated. The RBPC had higher crude protein and lower crude fat, total ash, total carbohydrates contents, and caloric value than SRB. The RBPC had higher levels of essential amino acids than SRB. The RBPC had higher water absorption, oil absorption, foaming capacity, foaming stability and emulsifying stability and lower bulk density than SRB. The proximate composition, height, weight, volume, specific volume, specific gravity, in-vitro protein digestibility and textural profile of cupcake and pan bread were affected by increasing the level of SRB in the cupcake and pan bread formulas. Cupcake and pan bread prepared with SRB had darker crust and crumb colors than the control. Sensory properties of the cupcake and pan bread prepared with 5% SRB were similar to the control. The crude protein, total ash and alkaline water retention capacity of tortilla were increased by increasing the level of RBPC. However, total carbohydrates, crude fat and crude fiber had an opposite trend. Tortilla prepared with RBPC had darker color than the control tortilla. Tortilla prepared with 7.5% RBPC had higher lysine (27.31%) and tryptophan (33.33%) than control tortilla. In-vitro protein digestibility of tortilla was significantly increased by increasing the RBPC up to 7.5%. The tortilla prepared with 7.5% RBPC had higher rating score of overall acceptability than control tortilla.