The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of balance between organic and mineral fertilizers on morphological and predictive charac-teristics of potato for two seasons, through the application of averages: (25 – 50 – 75 and 100) Ton / Hectare from compost of wheat and peanut which mixed successively with the percentage from mineral typical fertilizers (75 – 50 – 25 – 0 %). The results showed the distinguished effect of mineral fertilizer on morphological and prodictive characteristics of tubers in comparison with mixed or single organic fertilizer. The results showed also the positive effect of increasing the percent-age organic manure or its single use in the soil on the examined variables. However, the specific effect of organic fertilizer varied, so the compost of wheat produced an increase of examined varia-bles. This divergence of results was agreed with certain modifications of soil variables

This study was carried out during two succes-sive seasons 2005 and 2006 on Anna apple trees budded on Balady apple rootstock, grown in sandy soil at (4 x 4m) apart under drip irrigation system, in a private farm at El-Khatatba, Monofia Gover-norate. A comparative study of some weed control treatments have been studied on Anna apple trees with its associated weeds. The tested weed control methods were using different colours of polyeth-ylene for mulching (green, blue, red, black and transparent), rice straw mulch, hand hoeing twice and two herbicides (Glyfosinate and Glyphosate) comparing with unweeded (control). All weed control treatments revented a significant reduction in fresh and dry weight of annual broad-leaved weeds, annual grasses, perennial and total weeds as compared with un weeded. The most effective treatments in decreasing fresh and dry weight of annual broad-leaves weeds were rice straw mulch-ing, followed by black polyethylene mulch and Glyfosinate. While, rice straw, black polyethylene and Glyphosate treatments were the most effective in decreasing fresh and dry weight of grass and total weeds. Also, the highest decrement in fresh and dry weight of perennial weeds were obtained by rice straw mulching and Glyphosate treatments. Moreover, results showed a remarkable improve-ment in growth, nutritional status of apple trees and yield (kg/tree). Also, physical and chemical properties of the fruits were improved. The most pronounced treatment developed under such study on the growth reduction of different grown weeds, meanwhile increased the apple tree growth, fruit yield associated with higher fruit quality was in rice straw mulching, black polyethylene mulching, Glyphosate treatments followed by hand hoeing twice treatment.Finally, it could be concluded that soil mulch-ing with rice straw can be used as a method for weed control in apple orchards. This method de-veloped such advantages over herbicides, polyeth-ylene mulch and hand hoeing in this concern. The possibility of using rice straw mulch for their many positive effects such as low coasts, in har-mony with ecosystem without no harmful residual effect especially for exported fruits and for pro-ducing safe fruits for human nutrition. In addi-tions, soil mulch with rice straw improving growth, leaves mineral contents as well as pro-duced higher yield and better quality of apple fruits.

A pot experiment was carried out to investigate the agricultural value of a local phosphate rock (PR) as a source of plant phosphorus compared with that of the currently imported triplesuper-phosphate (TSP) .The PR was applied at the rate of 0, 55, and 110 kg P2O5 /ha and the TSP was at the rate of 0, 45 and 90 kg P2O5 /ha. The growth and leaf contents of N, P and K of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) grown on a clay soil were measured. The experiment continued for two sea-sons. Phosphatic fertilizers are of low recovery; therefore, they can remain for the next crop. Thus, the pots of the first season were set to study the residual effect of phosphorus in the second season. The results indicated that PR and TSP significant-ly (P>0.05) increased dry weights of shoot and root, leaf contents of N , P and available soil phosphorus. However, plant height was signifi-cantly increased by TSP only. The leaf content of K was neither affected by PR nor TSP application. The results showed a positive effect of the residual PR and TSP on the measured parameters. Moreo-ver, the results revealed that the plant measure-ments obtained from PR treatments were compa-rable to those obtained from TSP treatments which indicate that PR can be used as a potential source of phosphorus fertilizer.

Many countries are interested in production of Mushroom because of its high nutritive value. In Egypt, production of Mushroom is about 0.06% of the world production. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the economic feasibility of Mushroom production to evaluate the predicted profits in Egypt. The results showed that production of Mushroom significantly increased by 0.15 thousand ton/year. China, U.S.A and Germany are the top producing countries where 46.11% from the total world production is produced by these countries. The top exporting countries are China, Poland and Ireland since they export 57.67% from the total world exports of Mushroom. Meanwhile, Germany, Japan, England and U.S.A. are the top importing countries which import about 574.82% thousand tons/year through (2002- 2004). The study revealed that production of Mushroom is profitable as an enterprise for small investors in Egypt. Total production costs per year is about L.E. 8000. This small project gives two work opportunities and income of L.E. 12 thousand per year. The Internal rate of return of the enterprise is about 35% and the Payback period is about three years. Mushroom, the simple rate of return on investment is about 36%. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the least Internal rate of return supposing reduction of total income, is about 10% or increasing the total costs by 10%, the least Internal rate of return reached to14%. Whereas, simple rate of return on investment was estimated by 24% which was more than the interest rate in commercial banks that reached 10%. Therefore, This study recommends encouraging young-people enterprises in rural communities in new lands to produce Mushroom, by introducing technical consults, financial facilities for small investors. Also, limiting production and marketing difficulties, improving efficiency of marketing systems. In addition to maximizing production of Mushroom for exporting to the international markets and organizing training courses for spotting light on the economic feasibility of Mushroom to increase number of the investors to produce Mushroom.

Soil solarization in combination with fungal antagonists and soil amendments has been sub-jected to evaluation as a potential disease man-agement strategy for the control of charcoal rot of sesame caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. Solarization alone or in combination with Trichoderma pseudokoningii and Emericella nidulans singly or in mixed inocula reduces dis-ease incidence from 30 % (control) to 80%, 91 %, 82 % and 85% respectively. It is noted that while pairing improved the biocontrols potentiality of E. nidulans by increasing the number of healthy plants in both unsolarized and solarized soils it leads to decrease in the biocontrol potentiality of T. pseudokoningii. On the other hand the combina-tion of solarization with soil amendment with Eu-calyptus powdered leaves showed a synergistic effect by increasing number of healthy plants from 65 % in amended unsolarized soil to 77 % in amended solarized soil.

This study aims at clarifying the most important factors that control using and recycling of farm residues. Also, determining the contribution of these factors in the quantity used or recycled by the farmer. The results showed that, the most im-portant factors for amount percentage of wheat straw used as forage, were number of farm ani-mals, price of green forage/ ton and straw stores which together accounted for 78% of the amount percentage. On the other hand, the most important factors for sold quantity of wheat straw were number of farm animals and transporting means which together accounted for 51% in that amount. The study showed also that the most important factors of the recycled amount of rice straw werecosts of recycling rice straw to forage and fertiliz-er, price of compost/ ton and price of nitrogen fertilizers/ ton. These factors together accounted for 88% of the total variability of the recycled amount. The most import contributing factors in the amount of maize straw recycled to silage were straw recycling costs, number of farm animals and extension. These factors contributed to 87% in that recycled amount. The most contributing factors in the cotton straw used as fuel were number of fami-ly members and oil fuel used. These two factors accounted for 66% of variation of straw amount. The study recommends that establishment of agri-cultural policy is necessary to get rid of farm resi-dues using modern technology i.e recycling of farm residues to reduce environment pollution and to develop the agricultural sector to achieve sus-tainable agricultural development.

Weeds represent the most serious problem in wheat in Egypt. For their control, two field exper-iments were carried out during two winter seasons (2004/2005) and (2005/2006) at National Re-search Centre experimental station at Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate. Some groups of herbicides (Dirby, Harmony extra, Granstar, Ecopart, Illoxan, Topic and Arelon) as well as hand weeding and unweeded treatments were evaluated in wheat. In addition, herbicide combinations were also as-sessed. Harmony extra at 24 g / fed. provided ac-ceptable control for broad leaved weeds but failed to control completely narrow-leaved weeds. Topic at 140 g / fed. provided great control of narrow weeds (97.68% reduction in dry weight after 90 days from sowing). Mixtures of both Harmony extra +Topic at rates (18 g / fed. +105 g / fed.) were better than Harmony extra alone for weed control (99.19 % control, 90 days after sowing) and grain yield. Concerning the other herbicides, Granstar + Topic were effective in controlling both broad and narrow weeds. The efficacy of Harmony extra + Illoxan was lower (91.2% con-trol). Overall, Arelon or mixture of Harmony extra +Topic were the most effective treatments with regard to weed control and wheat growth, yield and its attributes. However, no carryover damage with all used herbicides was observed on wheat. Estimating individual amino acids in the yielded grain revealed increase in essential and nonessen-tial amino acids due to single or combined appli-cation of herbicides. Pronounced increase was recorded with Harmony extra and Topic

This work was carried out in two successive summer plantations of 2004 and 2005 on potatoes cv. Spunta at Abou Awad village , Aga, Dakahlia Governorate, to study the influence of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi , nitrogen and potassium fertilization at rates of 50, 75 and 100% of recommended rate / fed. with foliar spraying of micronutrients (Fe150 , Zn 75, and Mn 75 ppm) and their interactions on plant growth , yield and its components, as well as chemical composition .Application of the tested rates of nitrogen and the potassium induced significant increase in vegetative characteristics (plant height, foliage fresh and foliage dry weight) total tuber yield (t/fed) , number of tubers/plant and tuber weight/plant, tuber dry matter , starch and nitrate content in tuber, as well as N,P and K concentra-tions in the leaves and micronutrients in the leaves (Fe, Mn and Zn) in both seasons.Similarly, plant height, chlorophyll content, fo-liage fresh and dry weights , total yield (t/fed), number of tubers , tuber weight/ plant, tuber dry weight , starch and nitrate content in tuber, NPK concentration in leaves and tubers , micronutrient content (Fe, Zn and Mn) in leaves gave the highest values with inoculation by VA Mycorrhizal fungi and some micronutrients .The interaction between NK, VAM fungi and micronutrient gave the highest values of vege-tative growth characteristics, number of tu-bers/plant, NPK in leaves and tubers and micronu-trients (Zn and Mn) in leaves when potatoes was fertilized with 100% NK of the recommended rate and inoculate with VAM fungi plus foliar spraying by micronutrients (Fe, Zn and Mn).as well as total yield (t/fed), tuber weight/plant, tuber dry weight, starch content in tuber , Mn and Zn in leaves, while The lowest content of nitrate in tubers was found when plants were applied with 50 (%) NK of recommended rate with inoculation by VA My-corrhizal fungi.Generally, the best results were obtained when potato received 75 % of NK of the recommended rate, inoculated by VA Mycorrhizal fungi and sprayed with micronutrients at dose of Fe 150, Mn 75 and Zn 75 ppm. This treatment resulted in the highest total tuber yield and its components and reduced chemical fertilizer inputs.

The objective of the present study was to eval-uate the effect of using one method of estrus syn-chronization programs on Jersy cattle reproductive performance under arid land environment, by ap-plying a specific doses of prostaglandin F2α (two injections of 5ml for cow), to increase the repro-ductive efficiency of the animals, through regulat-ing time of pregnancy and parturition. Forty non-pregnant, healthy cows were taken randomly from the original stock of Hada Al Sham Research sta-tion which belong to king Abdul Aziz University and were classified into two groups, treatment and control groups. Results obtained showed that: es-trus synchronization program using two injections of prostaglandin F2α showed that, statistically, there is no significant difference in the plasma progesterone concentration between treated and control groups. Jersy cows treated with prosta-glandin F2α showed estrus in a shorter period compared to the control group. The percentage of animals showed estrus was 75 ٪ in treated group, compared with 65% in control group which showed 84 ٪. The pregnancy rate in treated group was 86.66 ٪, versus 69.23٪ in the control group. Service period length (SPL) was 97 days for the treatedgroup, compared to 104 days for the control group. There is a significant (P0.01) difference in the plasma progesterone concentration between both groups during pregnancy, which was higher in the treated group.- The differences in the plasma progesterone con-centration between both groups after parturition were not significant. Estrus synchronization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under arid land environment was considered as an application of new technology to improve reproductive effi-ciency of animals, and to regulate time of breed-ing and parturition in the herd. This will lead to a great important in the management of the ani-mal production branches.

A field experiment was carried out in sandy soil to elucidate the possibility of using chloride form as a partial source for potassium in fertiga-tion of banana plants grown on a sandy soil. Growth, fruit yield and quality as well as plant nutritional status and Cl accumulation within both plant leaves and rhizosphere beside an economical elucidation were taken in to consideration to ac-complish such evaluation. Eleven gradual increas-ing KCl: KNO3 (0:100 - 100:0) ratios were applied with maintaining the concentration of all macro and micro nutrients except Cl constant. Obtained data indicated that increasing Cl existence didn’t adversely affect plant growth under this experi-ment. Treatments of 10:90 followed by 50:50 as well as 70:30 followed by 80:20 and either 90:10 or 10:90 (KCl:KNO3) were most stimulating treatments for increasing pseudo stem diameter and leaves number, respectively. Although total fruit yield bunch as well as number and length of fingers are less sensitive to increasing KCl:KNO3 ratio, number of hands/bunch and diameters of fingers were significantly and positively affected by increasing KCl existence. Treatment of 80:20 KCl:KNO3 was the most significant superior one for all measured fruit yield parameters. Although Cl content increased significantly in banana leaves and root surrounding area with increasing Cl ex-istence in the fertigation solutions, recorded con-tents seemed to be in safe ranges whereas no chlo-ride necroses symptoms were appeared at banana leaves. Contents of N, P and K as well as Cl in plant leaves were significantly, although in fluctu-ating manner, affected by increasing chloride oc-currence in fertigation solution. The encountered response of N, P and K contents seemed to be not only a resultant of increasing Cl occurrence in the root media but also as a reflection to changing the N form (NH4 and urea) compensating N-NO3 de-cline in the fertigation solutions having high Cl concentrations. The relatively high supplements of Cl (80:20 followed by 70:30 KCl: KNO3) recorded the highest economical net return. It could be con-cluded that KCl can be perfectly used in fertigat-ing banana plants grown on sandy soils. To in-crease safety of using chloride under such condi-tions, more work could be suggested particularly what concerns with calculating irrigation and leaching water requirements to prevent chloride accumulation in the root zone.