PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON SWEET CORN

Abstract

This study was conducted in two trials. The first was carried out during the two successive seasons of 1997/1998 and 1998/1999 while the second trial was perfonned during the two subsequent seasons 199811999 and 1999/2000. The first trial was carried out at a private farm at Ayatt, Giza Governorate. While the second trial was carried out at Kaha Experimental Station of Vegetables Research Department, Ministry of Agriculture. Seeds of Challenger F1 hybrid Sh2 (ASJ,'fOW) were imported from USA, while seeds of Dynasty F 1 hybrid Sh 2 Syngenta seeds were imported from Holand.

First trial : Effect of soil solarization on yield and quality of two super sweet corn hybrids:

This trial was carried out to study the effect of soil solarization on, soil temperature during the solarization period, pathogens, soil chemical content, weeds, yield and quality of sweet com ears. The obtained results could be summarized as follows : Soil solalrization for 6 weeks by using polyethylene film resulted in :

1. Soil temperature increased with time during the day, it reached the maximum at 3.0 p.m. then decreased again during solarization period and was higher by I ooc with solarized soil at 0 depth at 3.0 p.m. to check unsolarized soil followed by 5 em depth in solarized treatment.

2. Soil solarization decreased Fusarium sp., total fungi, total bacteria and total nematodes.

3. Soil chemical analysis after removing fiim showed that soil solarization generally increased N, P, K, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mg++,