EFFECT OF PLANT RESIDUALS, ORGANIC FERTILIZER AND SOME TREATMENTS THAT REDUCE SALINITY EFFECT ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF EGGPLANT (Solanum melongea L.)

Abstract

Two field experiments were carried out at a Farm in El-Mataryia district, Dakahlia Governorate during the two growing seasons of 2011 and 2012 to study the effect of organic fertilization and ammonium thiosulfate (ATS) levels that reduce salinity effect on vegetative growth, yield and its components and chemical constituents of eggplant crop Black Beauty cultivar. The experiments were carried out by using splitplots system in a randomized complete blocks design with three replications. The main plots were arranged with organic fertilization treatments. The sub plots were assigned to ammonium thiosulfate levels. The obvious results of this investigation can be summarized as follows: Using farmyard manure (FYM) and potassium humate (KH) treatments significantly increased all studied characters as compared with other organic fertilization treatments in both seasons. Application rice residues (RS) caused significant increases on all studied characters as compared with control treatment (without organic fertilization) in both seasons. All studied characters were significantly influenced by different ATS levels in the both seasons. The highest values of these traits were resulted from using 30 L/fed and 40 L/fed of ATS, respectively in both seasons. Generally, it could be recommended that using FYM or KH, respectively along with 30 L ATS/fed to enhance vegetative growth characters, yield and its components and chemical constituents of eggplant fruits. Also, it could be recommended that using RS combined with 30 L ATS/fed to enhance studied characters as compared with control treatment (without organic fertilization) and also to reduce sources of environmental pollution and maintain human health.