EFFECT OF USING SOILCONDITIONERS ON WATER USE EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF TOMATO PLANT

Abstract

The experiment was performed under open filed at El-dolify Farm in Katatba zone, Monofaya Government, during seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. The experiment aimed to 1. Study the effect of soil conditioners at different irrigation regimes. 2. Increasing the efficiency of water use for tomato plants while maintaining production. Two factors were investigated under experiments as follows: • As main plot: Water requirement (100, 80 and 60%) • As sub plot: Soil conditioners were Oligo plus, Bioconditioner, Hundz soil and control (without soil conditioner). The Hundz soil conditioner was added with preparing the soil. While, Oligo plus and Bioconditioner were added two times during the season (first time was after 20 day from planting and the second time was after 20 day from the first adding with start flowering the plant). The experiment was arranged in a split plot design with three replicates. Water requirement levels were allocated in the main plots and soil conditioners were randomly arranged in sub plots. Plant length, number of leaves, stem diameter, leaf area, ,total fresh and dray weight of plant, chlorophyll reading, early and total yield, fruit parameters and the mineral analyses of tomato leaf (N, P ,K, Ca and Mg) were measured. The obtained results could be summarized as follow: Vegetative growth: 1. Plant length and number of leaves did not recorded any significant differences between the 80 and 100% of the applied, but a significant difference was recorded with 60% of water requirement. There was significant differences between soil conditioners and control; both Hundz soil and Oligo plus were superiority more than Bioconditioner. Interaction between Hundz soil and 100% after 30 days from transplanting date was greater than the rest of the transactions. But after 60 and 90 days from transplanting date there was no significant difference between the 80 and 100% combined with Hundz soil. On the other hand, the lowest value in the interaction has recorded by control treatment combined with 60% irrigation treatment. 2. Number of branches per plant had no significant differences between irrigation and soil conditioner treatments in the first season. While, after 60 and 90 days from transplanting there was a significant difference between the tested types of soil conditioners compared to control treatment. Also, there was no significant difference between soil conditioners combined with 80 or 100% but there was a significant difference between them and 60% combined with control in the both seasons. 3. There were no significant differences among irrigation levels on chlorophyll reading after 60 days from transplanting date in the both seasons. Whereas, there were significant differences on chlorophyll reading after 120 days from transplanting date in the both seasons, a moral difference appeared between (80 and 100%) and 60% of water requirement. There were no moral difference among Hundz soil and/or Oligo plus soil conditioner treatments, but there was significant difference between them and the Bioconditioner and control. The highest chlorophyll reading was obtained by both Hundz soil and Oligo plus soil conditioners combined with 80 and/or 100% irrigation levels. The lowest chlorophyll reading was obtained by control treatment combined with 60% irrigation treatment in the both of seasons. 4. For total plant leaf area there was a significant difference betwee