EFFECT OF MACRO FERTILIZER ELEMENTS AND SEEDING RATE ON PRODUCTIVITY OF TWO-ROW BARLEY

Abstract

Two field experiments were carried out during 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 winter seasons at Agricultural Research Station, at Giza, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt to study the effect of four combination treatments of NPK fertilizer: N15P7.5K12, N30P15K24, N45P22.5K36, and N60P30K48/kg/feddan and four seeding rates 100 grains m-2 (22 kg feddan-1), 150 grains m-2 (33 kg feddan-1), 200 grains m-2 (44 kg feddan-1) and 250 grains m-2 (55 kg feddan-1) and their interaction on barely plant growth, grain yield and its components, grain quality and NUE of grains, biological and protein yields. Randomized complete block design with split plot in three replications was used. NPK fertilizer combinations were assigned to the main plots, while the seeding rates were randomly distributed in the sub - plots. Plot size was 9 m2 (3×3 m), each plot contained 15 rows (20 cm apart, 3 m long). 1. Growth, yield and its components Directly before harvesting, height of random ten shoots in each plot was measured in centimeter using steal meter. At harvest, four samples of barely shoots were taken from area 0.25 m × 0.25 m from the middle area of each plot from three replicates to determine: number of tillers m-2, number of spikes m-2, spike length (cm), number of grains spike-1, weight of spikes g m-2, 1000-thousnd weight (g). One square meter was taken randomly from each plot to determine the biological, grain and straw yields. One square meter was taken randomly from each plot to determine the biological, grain; straw yields and harvest index (%).