Effect of Soil Water Stress and Deficit Mineral Nitrogen Fertilization on Productivity of Inoculated Wheat Seeds with Bio-n Fertilizer Cerealin in Sandy Soil

The present study aimed to investigate the combined effect of four irrigation regimes with six rates of mineral nitrogen fertilizer on productivity of inoculated and uninculated wheat grains, with bioN fertilizer Cerealin in sandy soil. Two field experiments conducted at the Experimental Station Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, El-Bostan Region, ElBehera Governorate, Egypt, during 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 winter seasons, using Giza 168 cultivar. The experiments were conducted in a split –plot design, with four replicates. The irrigation treatments (four, five, six and seven irrigations during the growing season) were randomly allocated to the main plots, while, the sub-plots were assigned to the fertilizer treatments (0, 50,100,150 and 200 kg mineral nitrogen /ha with a bacterial inoculation with Cerealin), and 250 kg mineral nitrogen /ha without bacterial inoculation of seeds with Cerealin. The two studied factors, irrigation treatment and nitrogen fertilization and their interactions had significant effects on all studied traits; i.e., heading date, plant height, number of spikes/m 2 , number of kernels/spike, 1000-grain weight, grain, straw and biological yields/ha and harvest index, in both seasons. It was concluded that bacterial inoculation of wheat seeds with bio-N fertilizer Cerealin, fertilized with 200 kg mineral N/ha and using six irrigations during the growing season, could be suggested to save (one surface irrigation/growing season),which might have a considerable effect on reducing the environmental pollution as a result of using mineral nitrogen, could might compensate about 20% of plant requirements of mineral nitrogen fertilization and maximize grain yield of Giza 168 wheat cultivar in sandy soil, at ElBostan Region, El-Behera Governorate.