Evaluation of some bio- and organo- stimulants on cardoon plant grown in newly reclaimed soil in North Africa / Alaa Eldeen Abdelghany Awad Shaheen ; Supervised Adel Saad Elhassanin , Raafat Nazmy Zaki , Ashraf Mohamed Khlifa

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Institute of African Research and Studies - Department of Natural Resources

A field experiment was carried out on saline calcareous sandy loam soil at Kom Oshim, El-Fayoum Governorate, Egypt, during two seasons of 2013/14 and 2014 / 15 cultivated by cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) plants to study the effect of different nitrogen sources: urea as mineral fertilizer, compost as organic fertilizer and Azospirllum seed inoculation as bio-fertilizer. The foliar spraying of potassium humate, yeast and seaweed extract as bio-stimulants were applied out for alleviating the hazardous effect of soil salinity stress on some soil characteristics and their effects on some plant components and biochemical constituents. Results showed that applying organic nitrogen sources, bio-organic nitrogen and bio-stimulants improved some soil physical and chemical properties such as soil bulk density, porosity, water moisture, soil organic matter content, soil pH, EC, available macronutrients and micronutrients content as well as, soil dehydrogenase and urease enzymes activities. Bio-stimulant foliar application as seaweed progressively increased leaf N, P, K, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu, while foliar application of K-humate increased leaf K content more than foliar application as seaweed in Cynara cardunculus L. This study concluded that the additon of compost and Azospirllum organic acids as soil application in combination with foliar spraying of organic acid (i.e., potassium humate and seaweed extract) increased yield of plants and their components in addition to the nutritional status and quality and biochemical components as carbohydrate, polyphenol (Sylimarin, Silicristin and Silibinin a,b) , chlorophyll a-b and carotenoid of grown plants in saline calcareous soil

Issued also as CD