5142
SAMEH MOHAMED MOHAMED EL-SAWY
RATIONALIZATION OF WATER CONSUMPTION OF TOMATO PLANTS GROWN UNDER SANDY SOIL CONDITIONS
Tomato, Deficit irrigation, Irrigation systems, Subsurface drip irrigation, Glycine betaine, Yield, Fruit quality, IWUE, LRWC, MSI.
Field experiment was carried out during the two growing seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, in a private farm at Bani Salama region, El- Giza Governorate, Egypt, in order to investigate the effect of deficit irrigation (DI) treatments (100% (control), 85%, 70% and 55% of ETo (Reference evapotranspiration)), irrigation systems (surface drip irrigation (SDI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI) (with 20cm soil depth)) and foliar application of glycine betaine concentrations (GB) (at 0, 5, 10 and 20 mM/l, applied after 2 and 6 weeks from transplanting date), on vegetative growth, fruit yield and quality of tomato plants (Marwa hybrid) grown under sandy soil conditions.Results indicated that DI treatments (85%, 70% and 55% of ETo) significantly decreased the vegetative growth (plant length, number of leaves per plant, total leaves area per plant and fresh and dry weights of tomato leaves per plant), flowering (number of flowers, number of clusters per plant) and fruit yield (number of fruits per plant and total marketable yield) parameters for tomato plants. Where, the highest significant values were obtained by the full irrigation treatment 100% ETo (control) and the lowest values were noticed with 55% ETo treatment. Similarly, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids), leaf relative water content (LRWC), membrane stability index (MSI), leaves mineral content parameters were reduced with decreasing irrigation water levels. In contrast, there were positive effects on proline content of tomato leaf and some fruit quality characteristics (TSS, total sugars, ascorbic acid content and titratable acidity) for tomatoes, as well as on irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE).
2016
Ph.d
Ain Shams
Agriculture