INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION WITHHOLDING AND POTASSIUM LEVELS ON FORAGE YIELDS AND ITS QUALITY OF FODDER BEET

SAKR H.O.¹, AWAD H.A.², SEADH S.E.³*, ABIDO W.A.E.^4
1Forage Research Department, Field Crops Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Egypt.
²Water Requirement and Field Irrigation Department, Soils, Water and Environment Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Egypt.
³Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.
⁴Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.
* Corresponding Author : seseadh04@mans.edu.eg

Received : 25-05-2014     Accepted : 15-07-2014     Published : 24-07-2014
Volume : 5     Issue : 1       Pages : 116 - 125
J Crop Sci 5.1 (2014):116-125
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.9735/0976-8920.5.1.116-125

Keywords : Fodder beet, Irrigation withholding, Water stress, Water consumptive use, Water use efficiency, Crop coefficient, Potassium lev-els.
Conflict of Interest : None declared

Water deficit is the most important environmental factors greatly limiting crop production worldwide. A field experiment was carried out to study the effect of irrigation withholding treatments i.e. control treatment (7 irrigations), withholding last, last two and last three irrigations (6, 5 and 4 irrigations, respectively), potassium levels (0, 24, 48 and 72 kg K2O/fed) and their interaction on forage yields, yield components and chemical constituents of fodder beet cv. Voroshenger. Water stress during maturity stage through withholding last, last two or last three irrigations markedly reduced forage yields and its components as well as crude protein (CP%), crude fiber (CF%), potassium (K%), digestible crude protein (DCP%). In contrary, gradual increases in total soluble solids (TSS%) and total digestible nutrients (TDN%) were resulted from irrigation withholding treatments. Increasing potassium level up to 72 kg K2O/fed produced highest forage yields and its components as well as CP%, CF%, K%, DCP%. Wile, without potassium fertilization was recorded highest TDN%. Water consumptive use values were 49.46, 42.75, 37.1, and 35.58 for irrigation withholding treatments, respectively. Average of crop coefficient (Kc) was 0.97 and water use efficiency (WUE) was 17.25 Kg/m3 for withholding last irrigation treatment. It could be recommended that withholding the last irrigation (6 irrigations) and compensated the reduction in forage yields through fertilizing with 48 kg K2O, which overtook the treatment by most fodder beet farmers (7 irrigations without potassium fertilization) under the environmental conditions of El-Serw district, Damietta Governorate, Egypt.

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