Potential Effect of Irrigation Intervals and Potassium Phthalate on Fennel Plants Grown in Semi-Arid Regions

Abstract

I NCREASING competition on water resources between the agriculture sector and other sectors requires new irrigation regimes to perform relevant levels of production in semi-arid regions. Field experiment was conducted during two successive seasons at the Experimental Farm of EL-Quassassin, Ismailia Governorate, Egypt. This experiment was prepared to assess the effects of different irrigation intervals, potassium phthalate and their combinations on the growth, number of umbels, fruit yield,water use efficiency, and volatile oil production of fennel plant during two successive seasons 2016/2017 and 2017/2018, respectively. Three irrigation treatments, main factor, as follow: I 1 (every three days, which is the common in this region with 1150 m 3 /ha), I 2 (every five days with 766 m 3 /ha), and I 3 (every seven days with 383 m 3 /ha), and the potassium phthalate as subsidiary factor (0, 400,500, and 600 ppm) were applied. The results showed that, the highest vegetative growth parameters were related to the potassium phthalate at the rate of 600 ppm and irrigation interval 3 days.The highest values of fruit yield, as well as the volatile oil production were significantly affected by the potassium phthalate and irrigation frequency in both seasons. Nevertheless, the concentrations of the macro and micro-nutrients in fruits revealed an increasing trend with increasing the irrigation intervals.In addition, the lower the amount of water use, the higher the water use efficiency.The results of GLC analysis of fennel volatile oil indicated that methyl chavicol as the main component varied between (63.02 and 80.82%). The treatment of potassium phthalate at 600 ppm with irrigation every 3 days resulted in the lowest methyl chavicol percentage.Thus, the proper irrigation interval increases the plant water stress tolerance by increasing the water use efficiency and the nutrient concentrations of fruits.

Soil Water Erosion Vulnerability and Suitability under Different Irrigation Systems Using Parametric Approach and GIS, Ismailia, Egypt

“…The distribution of the weighted mean of soil salinity (EC) values showed in Table 3. Salinity is one of the main edaphic factors which limits the distribution of plant communities in their natural habitats and which is causing increasingly severe agricultural problems [14,15]. Soil reaction pH is an important parameter, due to its effects on nutrient availability, microbial activity, and plant growth.…”

“…Identifying a relevant irrigation regime is considered a vital strategy to enhance the water use efficiency for agriculture purposes in arid regions. Therefore, preserving a sustainable agriculture concept would require identifying the plant response to the water regime and rationing the water for irrigation [14,15]. In the arid regions that suffered from water scarcity phenomena and long summer drought, such as the Ismailia region (Suez Canal, Egypt), relevant irrigation strategies are extremely important to mitigate the yield reductions and increase the water use efficiency [14,16].…”

Vegetative Growth, Yield, and Quality of Onion as Influenced by Nitrogen Rates and Natural Stimulators

“…Natural stimulators such as yeast extract, fulvic acid, amino acids, and seaweed extract have emerged as vital components in agricultural production. As Fathy and Farid (1996) and Hegazi et al, (2023) point out, yeast provides cytokinins, which promote cell growth, division, and chlorophyll production. It has been estimated that spraying with fulvic acid increases the performance index (PI) and maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II under wellwatered and low water conditions (Lotfi et al, 2015; Elshaboury and Sakara, 2021;).…”