Prof. Hassan Hamza Abbas Ramdan :: Publications:

The current work represents a trial on comparing addition of mineral nitrogen and organic amendments as tools to enhance plant growth under conditions of water stress. The experimental work involved a pot experiment carried out at the greenhouse of Soils Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University. Pots were uniformly packed with soil, each having 5 kg of air-dried loamy sand soil collected from EI-Deer village, Kalubeia Governorate. Fertility treatments consisted of adding (NH4)2S04 at a rate of 30 or 90 mg N kg-1 organic manure (chicken manure (CM)or composting manure (Comp.))at a rate of 0.5 or 2%each. Biofertilization using inoculation was also studied;inoculation was done by means of a mixture of efficient strains of Azotobacter chroeoccum (Azt)(nitrogen fixing bacteria)+Bacillus megatherium (phosphorus dissolving bacteria).Also, moisture stress was studied through exposing the plants to moisture level treatments of 50,80 and 100%of water holding capacity. Plants were sampled at 45 and 70 days from sowing and weighted. Sub samples of plant material were wet digested and used for determination of nitrogen. All soil amendment materials including mineral nitrogen fertilizer increased wheat plant growth. Subjecting the growing plants for a soil moisture stress decreased dry matter yield. Inoculation increased wheat plant growth and produced higher nutrients uptake and hence alleviated the negative effect of soil moisture stress.The combined effect of organic manure especially chicken manure and inoculation with biofertilizer was more pronounced when plants were under moisture stress.Application of soil amendments combined with inoculation at 50% water holding capacity produced high values of nitrogen uptake, which were comparable to those achieved at 80%of water holding capacity.