Treatments to alleviate adverse effect of saline soil on growth and productivity of Balady Mandarin trees (Citrus reticulata Blanco). [electronic resource]

Includes bibliographic reference

To study the effect of soil amendments combined with foliar application of Salicylic acid on soil properties, growth, yield, fruit quality and leaf nutrient content of Balady mandarin trees, an experiment in split plot format based on complete randomized block design with three replicates in Sidy Ghazy, Kafr El-Sheikh governorate was conducted. The main plots of experiment were used for foliar application of S~licylic acid with three concentrations (tap water, 200 and 300 ppm) and sub plots were for soil amendments with Humic acid, Biotol, Humic acid + Biotol and Control. The obtained results showed that application of Humic acid + Biotal combined with Salicylic acid foliar spray at 300 ppm in mandarin orchard appeared to be superior in improving saline soil by enhancing soil chemical parameters in terms of EC, pH, CEC, SAR, nutrients and microbial population, in addition it induced a significant improvement of tree size and vegetative growth under saline soil conditions. Moreover, leaf analysis showed highly significant increase ofN, P, K, Fe, Mn and Zn leaf contents with soil amendments and foliar spray of Salicylic acid at 300 ppm. The highest yield with good quality was obtained with the interaction between Humic acid plus Biotol and along with Salicylic acid foliar spray at 300 ppm. Thus, Humic acid, Biotol and foliar spray with Salicylic acid could contribute to the reduction of soil nutrient loss and mitigation of the negative effects of saline stresses on plant growth and productivity. Therefore, this study recommended the application of Humic acid + Biotol + SaHcylic acid foliar application at 300 ppm, which gave the best growth, yield, fruit quality and nutritional status ofBalady mandarin trees.

Summary in Arabic