Enhancement of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Productivity by EM Foliar and Soil Amendments under the Rain Fed Conditions of the North Western Coast of Egypt

Abstract

Two filed experiments were conducted at Sidi-Barrani, Marsa Matrouh Governorate in the North Western Coast of Egypt during the two successive growing seasons of 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 to study the effect of different EM foliar application {Tap water (control), EM1 and (EM1+ micronutrients i.e balanced Cu – Fe – Mn – Zn - Mo)}and different soil amendments {without amendments (Control), Plants residues alone, (Plants residues + EM-Bokashi), Bio-Polymer (Polyacrylamide), and Bio-Polymer (Polyacrylamide) + EM-Bokashi) } in addition to their interactions on yield and its attributes of barley cv, Giza 126 under the rainfed conditions of the North-Western Coast of Egypt. The results illustrated that all the studied characters, i.e. plant height (cm), number of spikes/m2, spike length (cm), 1000 grains weight (g), grain yield (kg/fed), straw yield (kg/fed), biological yield (kg/fed) as well as harvest index (%) was significantly promoted by each of the EM1 foliar applications, Soil amendment incorporation and their interaction as compared with the control treatments. The highest significant observations for the all studied characters of barley cv. Giza 126 under rain-fed conditions were obtained from the interaction between {EM1 foliar application+ micronutrients}×{Bio-Polymer (Polyacrylamide) + EM-Bokashi}.We advise that; under the rain-fed condition, such existed in the North-Western Coast of Egypt, Matrouh Governorate, foliar application of (EM1+ micronutrients) with (Bokashi + polymer) as soil amendments seemed to be necessary in order to have an appreciated yield of barley.