Effect of Soil Conditioners on Growth and Fruiting of Manfalouty Pomegranate Trees Grown in New Reclaimed Region.

This study was conducted at a special farm existing at Banu Aday, Manfalout city, Assiut Governorate, Egypt, to study the impact of soil conditioners on growth and fruiting of Manfalouty pomegranate trees during 2020 and 2021 seasons. Hundz soil, bentonite and compost were applied in January of each season. This study designed as a randomized complete block system with four transactions and three replicating’s two trees for each. Data indicated that using hundz soil, bentonite or compost considerably raised the shoot length, leaf area, chlorophyll, relative water contents, leaf-N, P and K%. However, all treatments considerably reduced the leaf proline content. All soil conditioners used considerably increased the yield/tree and commercial fruit % and considerably reduced the percentages of fruit splitting and sunburn compared to use check treatment. Moreover, all treatments used caused a significant improvement the fruit traits represented by increasing weight, arils percentage of fruits, total soluble contents as well as reducing sugar, vitamin C and anthocyanin contents and lack the total acidity in comparison with control. Using hundz soil and compost as soil conditioners recorded the highest units of general evaluation these values were 99.6 and 97.2, respectively. In general view, obtained results ensure the importance of using soil conditioners i.e., hundz soil or compost to produce pomegranate trees as improving the characteristics of fruit and thus increasing the marketing value of yield. In addition, these soil conditioners treatment used lead to soil improvement, growth and increase production yield, then reduce production cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]