INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION LEVELS, ANTITRANSPIRANTS AND POTASSIUM SILICATE ON GROWTH, FRUIT YIELD AND QUALITY OF SWEET PEPPER PLANTS (Capsicum annuum L.) GROWN UNDER DRIP IRRIGATION

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted at a private farm near EL-Mansoura city, El-Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt, during the two successive seasons of 2011 and 2012 to study the effect of three water irrigation levels, the first was 2600 m 3 fed -1 as the control treatment (the traditional irrigation amount used by the farmers in the area), the 2 nd and the 3 rd treatments were 1800 and 1000 m 3 fed -1 , respectively, as deficit irrigation treatments as well as four foliar applications, i.e., control, magnesium carbonate, kaolin and potassium silicate on growth, chemical composition, yield, water use efficiency and fruit quality of sweet pepper plants (Gedeon F1 Hybrid) cultivated under drip irrigation system in clay-loam soil at northern of Nile Delta lands. The main results could be summarized as follows:-Applying the high irrigation water level (2600 m 3 fed -1 ) or the deficit level (1800 m 3 fed -1 ) combined with foliar application of kaolin or potassium silicate showed the highest significant values of all studied vegetative growth aspects, i.e., stem diameter, relative growth rate, net assimilation rate and leaf relative water content. -Applying 2600 m 3 fed -1 combined with foliar application of potassium silicate and 2600 or 1800 m 3 fed -1 combined with foliar application of kaolin or potassium silicate significantly increased NPK uptake by sweet pepper plants foliage. -Applying 1000 m 3 fed -1 combined with foliar application of kaolin or potassium silicate significantly increased total chlorophyll contents in sweet pepper leaves. -All studied yield characteristics, i.e., number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, early yield and total yield per feddan as well as water use efficiency were significantly increased by applying 1800 m 3 fed -1 of irrigation water combined with foliar application of kaolin or potassium silicate. -The highest significant values of vitamin C, total soluble solids, reducing sugars and total sugars contents in sweet pepper fruits were significantly affected by applying the deficit irrigation treatments (1800 or 1000 m 3 fed -1 ) combined with foliar application of kaolin or potassium silicate. -Fruit flesh thickness was significantly increased by applying 2600 m 3 fed -1 combined with kaolin or potassium silicate foliar application. -The highest net return was obtained by applying 1800 m 3 fed -1 combined with foliar application of kaolin; such treatment returns the highest benefit-cost ratio (2.51).In conclusion, this investigation demonstrate that irrigation sweet pepper plants with 1800 m 3 fed -1 combined with kaolin foliar application (4%, 4 times during the season) could be recommended to improve the vegetative growth characteristics, chemical composition, total yield, water use efficiency and fruit quality, saving about 30% of the total used irrigation water quantity in sweet pepper production. Such treatment can be recommended under drip irrigation system in clay-loam soil at northern of Nil Delta lands, giving the highest net return and benefit-cost ratio to the fa...

Using some Compounds to Alleviate Salinity Stress on Sweet Pepper Plants.

“…The application with glycine -betaine was the best in number of fruits/plant, average fruit weight, yield/fed .Followed by glutathione or potassium silicate in the two seasons, respectively .The same trend was appeared in fruit physical characters table 7. Similar results were obtained by Mäkelä et al (1998) on tomato , Sakr et al (2015) and (Kamal, 2013) on pepper respectively.…”

Influence of some Irrigation Levels and Foliar Application of some Antitranspirants on Vegetative Growth, Leaf Chemical Constitutes and Seed Yield of Squash Plants

“…The positive effect of spraying antitranspirants materials on seed yield of squash plants that achieved in our study may be attributed to the increased vegetative growth parameters, i.e, fresh and dry weights, plant length, No. of leaves and leaf area, and chemical constituents in leaves, i.e, N, P and K percentage as well as total chlorophyll (a+b) and leaves proline content, as previously shown in Tables 2 & 3. The obtained results are supported by the findings of Wafaa (2002); Kuruppaiah et al (2003); Al-Omran et al (2005); Ibrahim and Selim (2010);El-Afifi et al (2013); Kamal (2013) and Ramadan and Omar (2017).…”

“…Spraying squash plants by kaolin 2% and MgCO 3 2% under irrigation with 80% from ETc gave better results than untreated plants under irrigation with 100% from ETc .These results are supported by the findings of El-Afifi et al (2013) and Kamal (2013) who showed a significant superiority of adding kaolin on the N,P,K percentage in eggplant and bell pepper leaves.…”

Effect of Planting Date and Foliar Spray With Potassium Silicate on Growth and Yield of Some Garlic Cultivars

“…Foliar spray with potassium silicate increased plant growth, and yield and its components on strawberries (Wand and Galletta 1998), bean (Abou-Baker et al, 2011), sweet pepper (Kamal, 2013) Therefore, the aim of this work was to determin suitable planting date and potassium silicate rate to obtain high growth and best productivity of two garlic cultivars under clay soil and using flood irrigation system. http:/www.journals.zu.edu.eg/journalDisplay.aspx?Journalld=1&queryType=Master…”