The Performance of Cucumber Plants (Cucumis sativus L.) as Affected by Organic and NPK Mineral Fertilization under Plastic Houses Conditions at Arid Region

Two plastic house experiments were conducted during 2016/ 2017 and 2017/2018 seasons in the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Egypt on a sandy textured soil under unheated plastic houses. The target of fertilization program seeks to achieve the best combination of various organic and NPK mineral fertilization that lead to the highest yield and quality of cucumber plant 'Merage F₁ hybrid'' especially during the winter season. Therefore, 12 treatments were arranged in a split plot layout in complete randomize block design with three replicates. Chicken manure at the rates of (10, 15 and 20m³/fed.) were randomly arranged in the main plots, while NPK mineral fertilization at rates of (0:0:0, 50:30:50, 100:40:80, and 150:50:110 Kg N:P₂O₅: K₂O/fed., respectively, were randomly distributed in the sub-plots. The obtained results demonstrated that the treatment combination of chicken manure at 20 m³/ fed. plus 150:50:110 kg. NPK/fed. exhibited the highest significant mean values of most studied characters as vegetative growth characters (i.e. number of leaves/plant, the number of branches /plant, plant fresh weight and chlorophyll index); yield characters {i.e. no. fruits /plant, average fruit weight (g), total yield/m² (kg) and early yield/m² (kg)}; fruit quality (i.e. TSS %, vitamin C, and reducing, non-reducing and total sugars); fruits chemical analysis characters (viz, N, P, K contents in fruits ) during both seasons of the study as compared to the other treatments. Based upon, the reported results, it is possible to conclude that, the combination among 20 m³/fed. of chicken manure plus 150:50:110 Kg. NPK/fed. considered as the optimal combination treatment whereas it gave the highest mean values of vegetative growth characters, yield and its components and fruit quality of cucumber plants grown under plastic houses conditions at Aswan governorate and similar regions.