NEUTRALIZATION OF DROUGHT STRESS AND IMPROVING GROWTH, WATER STATUS, YIELD AND QUALITY OF JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE (Helianthus tuberosus L.) USING COMPOST, HUMIC ACID AND SUPERABSORBENT POLYMER

Ezzat, A. S.; Abd El-Aziz, Merfet G.; Ashour, S. A.

doi:10.21608/jpp.2015.52455

NEUTRALIZATION OF DROUGHT STRESS AND IMPROVING GROWTH, WATER STATUS, YIELD AND QUALITY OF JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE (Helianthus tuberosus L.) USING COMPOST, HUMIC ACID AND SUPERABSORBENT POLYMER

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Vegetable Res. Dept., Hort. Res. Institute, Agric. Res. Center

10.21608/jpp.2015.52455

Abstract

Drought is the most serious problem in agriculture wide world, especially in arid and semiarid regions. Application of soil conditioners could increase water retention and decrease leaching of water and fertilizers from the soil. This study was conducted on Jerusalem artichoke (JA) cv. Fuseau in Baramoon Research Station, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt during the growing seasons of 2013-2014. Two irrigation regimes (10 and 20 days’ intervals starting after 1^st irrigation) in combination with compost, humic acid and superabsorbent polymer (SAP) were evaluated to increase irrigation efficiency under drought stress.
The vegetative growth parameters, water status, marketable and total tuber yield, dry matter production, inulin yield, nitrogen and proline contents and water use efficiency of JA plants were investigated. Under drought stress (irrigation at 20 days), all the studied parameters except for leaf water deficit, proline content and water use efficiency (WUE) tend to decrease in both seasons. Dual application of SAP with compost or humic acid led to significant increases in all studied criteria, compared to check or other treatments.
Under normal irrigation period (10 days’ intervals), all tested criteria were found to be significant, especially at application of compost as soil amendments, in both seasons. Additionally, incorporating SAP dually with compost or humic acid under deficient irrigation water improved WUE and decreased water requirement by 50%. Also, the tuber yield and physiological quality characters were found to be equivalent to the control treatment under normal irrigation conditions. This in turn encourages such amendments to reduce water consumption.

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