RESPONSE OF ZAGHLOUL DATE PALM GROWN ON CALCAREOUS SOIL TO SOURCES OF ORGANIC FERTILIZATION

Abstract

Organic manure is playing a profound role in plant nutrition and soil improvement, particularly under conditions of dry climatic regions. Field experiments on twenty- years- old Zaghloul date palm trees, grown on calcareous soil at Maryout Research Station, DesertResearchCenter, were conducted to study the trees response to different organic manures for two consecutive seasons 2012 and 2013, under rainfed circumstances. Three local sources of organic manures were used as: camel, sheep and compost manure. The application rate were 0, 25, 50 kg organic manure/palm tree. Two treatments of potassium humate; without and with (one kg/palm tree) were combined with the organic manures. The results indicated that, fruit yield, fruit physical characteristics and total sugar content were significantly increased by organic manures applications with or without K-humate compared to control treatment, during the two seasons. Also, application of organic manures led to raise the P and K content than the minimum of sufficient level in soil and plant. However, these treatments were not able to increase N up to sufficient level in soil and plant. The results of this study showed that the optimum fertilizer treatment was sheep manure (50 kg/tree) along with K-humate, which achieved suitable quality and quantity fruit yield of Zaghloul date palm. Moreover, this treatment increased the mineral content of soil and leaves of palm compared to compost and camel manures. Also, the organic manure resulted from sheep is considered the cheapest manure and more available in desert soils compared to other manures. Therefore, this manure is recommended for Zaghloul date palm cultivated on calcareous soil under conditions of arid and semi-arid regions that are limited in water resources.