Improvement citrus production under salinity stress
Improvement citrus
production under salinity stress
Citrus is suggested to be one of the most important fruit
crops all over the world, especially in warm temperate regions, occupied the
third position between fruit crops in the world after grapes and apples.
Moreover, Egypt ranks as the 8th
among the world top 10 producers of citrus (FAO, 2011)
The citrus is a major fruit crop cultivated in Egypt as its
acreage, production and exportation potentialities are concerned. It is the
largest horticultural industry, also, citrus cultivated area increased rapidly
from year to year during the last few years, reached 483296 feddan in 2011 from
the total fruit crop area, which
estimated to be 1388153 feddans, the fruiting acreage of citrus occupies
395731 feddan produced 3730685 tons with average of 9.5 tons/ fed. (Ministry of
Agriculture and Land Reclamation2011)
Extension of the cultivated area is due to: I) fit
environmental conditions. II) increasing demands of local consumption and III)
its highly economic value as a main source for exportation to the
European countries and the Gulf countries. Which is expected to boom in the
future, such extension in area encourage establishing more studies towards
finding out an appropriate management for improving the production and fruit
quality.
Salinity of soil and irrigation water regimes and drought
conditions are considered to be serious and major problems that face citrus
growers in arid and semiarid areas and citrus trees are classified as
salt-sensitive.
In Egypt, the newly reclaimed regions, whereas, alkaline
soils, salinity water and mal-nutrition reduced citrus production.
Sweet oranges the main grown citrus species in Egypt. Navel
orange and Valencia orange cv, ranks the first and second position in
citrus varieties in Egypt.
Generally, natural Magnetite and humate compounds can be used
as soil improvement products with a superior "residual effect" in the
soil and cheaper in compared to other chemical substances which practically
used in agricultural systems.
Application will help in a lowering cost and give safety
product for crops users and increasing benefits as time function than other
chemical applications.
Moreover, Magnetite may be play an important role in cation
uptake capacity and has a positive effect on immobile plant nutrient uptake.
The need for these
humic products in soil systems has been substantiated; many immobilizing
materials increased soil pH, humic acid resulted in an increase cation exchange
capacity (CEC), and decrease in metal mobility.
In some cases,
the addition of alkaline materials simultaneously increased the dissolved
organic matter (D O M) concentration in the soil solution, resulting in
increasing leaching of metal –D O M complex.
The main target of this study was implement growth and
fruiting of Valencia orange trees under salinity stress by natural materials
().
The previous studies through different new area like Nubaria
and Salhia areas dealing with the positive effect of (Magnetite and Humate compounds)
on vegetative growth characters, nutritional status of the trees, yield as well
the fruit characters in citrus trees under the newly reclaimed soils in Egypt.
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