EFFEECT OF SOIL MOISTURTE STRESS, BIOLOGICAL '• AND MINERAL NITROGENOUS FERTILIZATION ON GROWTH, YIELD AND .CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SOYBEAN

Abstract

SUMMARY Two field experiments were conducted at the Experimental Farm Abees, Agricultural Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba Basha), Alexandria University, during 2007 and 2008 seasons, to study the effect of soil moisture stress, biological and mineral nitrogenous fertilization on growth, yield and chemical composition of soybean.

The experimental design was a split split-plot with three replicates. The main plots were assigned to soil moisture deficit at 30%, 40 %, 50 % and 60 % of available •soil moisture ,three levels of nitrogen fertilizer (zero, 15, 30 kg!N/fed.) were randomly distributed in the sub-plots, Whereas biofertilization treatments (control, Rhizobacterien, Rhizobium japonicum and dual inoculation) were represented m the sub-sub plots.

A. The following growth attributes were recorded• 1- Plant height (em) 2- Number of branches I plant 3- Leaf area index ( L.A.l) 4- Dry matter accumulation (g) 5- Crop growth rate ( C.G.R) 6- Relative growth rate ( R.G.R) 7- Number of nodules I plant 8- Weight of nodules (g I plant)

B. At harvest, the following characters of yield and yield components were recorded: number of seeds I plant, number of pods I plant, seed yield (g)/ plant, 100 - seeds weight(g), seed yield (t /fed), biological yield (t/fed), harvest index, oil yield (kg/fed) and protein yield (kg/fed) C. Grain quality D. Plant analysis