Influence of Irrigation Intervals and Antitranspirants on Growth, Yield and Quality of Strawberry Under Drip Irrigation System B- Plant Mineral Contents, Water Use Efficiency and Scanning Electron Microscope of Stomata

Abstract

Kaluobia Governorate during the two successive seasons of 2013 2014 and 2014 2015 to illustrate the effect of three irrigation intervals (each two, three, and four days) and five antitranspirants (potassium, sodium , and aluminum silicate ,magnesium and calcium carbonate in addition to control on minerals content ,water use efficiency and stomata morphology of Festival strawberry cultivar .The experimental design was split plot design with three replications under drip irrigation system .Results indicate that minerals contents of plant leaves as nitrogen , sodium and iron were affected with spacing water intervals in the two seasons while , magnesium and silicon were affected in the first season only .But each of potassium , calcium , zinc and manganese were not significantly affected with irrigation intervals .The best treatments resulted in the highest minerals content with irrigation each three or four days and foliar spray of kaolin or potassium silicate.The interaction treatments between irrigation intervals each four days and foliar spray of each kaolin and magnesium carbonate resulted in the highest values of water use efficiency compared to the other treatments in the two tested seasons. Results of scanning electron microscope analysis show that use of any of antitranspirants under study improved water status of the plant and reduced water loss through transpiration, as a result of the partial and relatively closure of the leaves stomata compared to the untreated plants. The study recommend irrigating strawberry plants each three days and foliar spray with each kaolin or magnesium carbonate ,calcium carbonate, potassium silicate and sodium silicate respectively to increase minerals content , water use efficiency, and therefore , yield and quality of strawberry under Kalubia Governorate conditions.