EFFECT OF ORGANIC MANURE SOURCE AND BIOFERTILIZER TYPE ON GROWTH, PRODUCTIVITY AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF JEW’S MALLOW (Corchorus olitorious L.) PLANTS

Two field experiments were carried out during the summer seasons of 2001 and 2002 at the Experimental Station Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, at Abeis, to study the effects of four treatments of organic manure (unmanured, chicken, compost and cattle) and three biofertilizer treatments (uninoculated, Halex 2 and Nitrobein) on vegetative growth, yield potential and chemical constituents of jew's mallow plants (cv. Balady) grown in clay loam soils. The results, generally, indicated that organic manures, irrespective of the used source, enhanced vegetative growth characters; expressed as plant height, leaf area plant -1 , and fresh and dry weights of leaves and plant weights. Chicken manure was the most effective in this respect, followed by compost. Yield potentials, expressed as fresh weight of first and second cuttings, and total fresh (kg/m 2 ) and dry yields (g/m 2 ) were increased due to the application of various organic sources, particularly chicken manure. In addition, leaves contents of chl. (a), chl. (b), chl. (a+b), N, K, Ca and Fe were positively and significantly affected by organic manures. Chicken manure exceeded both compost and cattle manures in the terms of mineral contents and photosynthetic pigments. Inoculation of seeds with the biofertilizer Halex-2 or Nitrobein, greatly, improved vegetative growth characters and yield potentials and increased leaves chemical contents. Halex-2 appeared more effective than J. Agric. & Env. Sci. Alex. Univ., Egypt. 3002 . 2 . 2 .ooV 89 Nitrobein in this respect. The most efficient treatment combination was found to be that of chicken manure in addition to Halex-2 biofertilizer which gave more vigorous growth, better yield potentials, as well as higher leaves chemical contents.