EFFECT OF SOWING DATE, CULTIVAR, AND SEEDING RATE ON BARLEY UNDER SANDY SOIL CONDITIONS IN EYGPT

Abstract

A field trial was carried out at Ismailia Agric. Res. Sta. through 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 winter seasons. The study aimed to find out the effect of three sowing dates (5th November, 25th November and 15th December) and four seeding rate (30, 40, 50 and 60 kg seeds fad-1 ) on three barley cultivars (Giza 2000, Giza 134 and Giza 131) under sandy soil conditions for phenological stages, growth parameters, yield and yield components of barley. The early sowing on 5th Nov. produced the longest phenological duration and growing degree days at booting, heading and maturity, the highest growth parameters, i.e. total chlorophyll, crop growth rate, leaf relative water content, the highest yield, yield components and attributes i.e. plant height, number of grains spike1 , 1000-grain weight, number of spikes m-2 grain and harvest index compared with other sowing dates. Cultivars significantly affected phenological stages, growth parameters, yield and yield components. Giza134 cultivar had the highest values of all mentioned traits, except for 1000-grain weight, which was increased by Giza 131cultivar. Increasing seeding rate up to 60 kg seeds fad-1 decreased number of days and growing degree days at all phenological stages, total chlorophyll, leaf relative water content, spike length, number of grains spike-1 , 1000-grain weight and harvest index, however it increased plant height, number of spikes m-2 and biological yield fad-1 . Crop growth rate, net assimilation rate and grain yield fad-1 responded to increasing seeding rate up to 50 kg seeds fad-1 .