Productivity and Quality of Nigella sativa L. Plant Influenced by Moringa Extract application under Different drip irrigation Levels

Abstract

Irrigation water use management is one of the most important factors of agricultural sustainability. Therefore, an experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm of Arab El- Awammer Research, Station, Assiut, Egypt. during the two successive growing seasons of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, to study the foliar application with different concentrations of Moringa leaves extract (control (zero), 2 and 4%) under different levels of deficit irrigation (60, 80% and 100% ETc). The results showed that, all evaluated parameters of black cumin plant (height, number branch, number of capsules /plant, weight of seeds (gm)/ plant and weight of seeds (kg)/fed.) significantly decreased with increasing water stress, inversely water stress increased significantly unsaturated fatty acids percentage (linoleic, oleic acids, Eicosadienoic acid). Economic productivity of irrigation water and IWUE, were significantly increased at 60% ETc compared to 80 and 100% ETc. The mean values of all studied characters were significantly increased as the moringa extract concentration increased in both seasons. While the highest mean values of fixed oil, total protein and total carbohydrate were obtained with100% and 80% water interacted with the highest moringa extract applied level (4%). The combination of full irrigation and 4% MLE gave the highest values of most previous parameters; additionally insignificant differences were noticed between full irrigation and moderate stress treatments with the same concentration. Therefore, it could be recommended by foliar application of 4% MLE with 80% Etc irrigation water for obtaining higher yield and quality of black cumin.