The effect of some soil conditioners on the yield and quality of sweet pepper grown under saline soil conditions using two sources of organic nitrogen fertilizers

Abstract

Because of increased population worldwide in general and Egypt in particular , this may lead to a problem in the lack of food and fertile land area therefore, we resort to the expansion of the cultivation of salt soil. For that this experiment was carried out during two summer seasons of 2020 and 2021 at the Experimental Farm of El-Kassasein, Hort. Res. Station, Ismailia Governorate, Egypt, to study the effect of organic nitrogen sources (poultry manure and botanical compost ) and some soil conditioners ( magnetic iron at 25 and 50 kg /fed. and humic acid at 2 and 4 kg /fed.) on growth, yield and fruit quality of sweet pepper cv Top Star under sandy soil conditions. Fertilizing sweet pepper plants grown in sandy soil with 180 kg N as organic nitrogen in the form of poultry manure ( 5.521 ton /fed.) increased plant growth, N, P and K uptake by shoots, yield and its components , nitrogen use efficiency, dry matter, total soluble solids and Vit. C and decreased nitrate content in fruits compared to fertilizing with 180 kg N as organic nitrogen in the form of botanical compost (9.890 ton /fed.). Adding magnetic iron and humic acid as salt soil conditioners at different rates to sandy soil increased plant growth, N, P and K uptake by shoots, yield and its components, fruit traits, dry matter, total soluble solids and Vit. C and decreased nitrate content in fruits compared to control (without soil conditioners). Fertilizing with poultry manure at 5.521 ton /fed. and adding magnetic iron at 50 kg /fed. increased shoot dry weight, N, P and K contents and uptake by shoots, number of fruits/ plant, average fruit weight, yield / plant , total yield /fed. nitrogen use efficiency, dry matter and total soluble solids in fruits, whereas poultry manure at 5.521 ton/fed. and humic acid at 4 kg /fed. increased Vit. C and decreased nitrate contents in fruits.