Several field and laboratory experiments were carried out to study the effect of different potassium (potassien) rates as foliar application on growth traits, yield and yield components of mono-cut Egyptian clover (variety Giza 1). Two field experiments were conducted at the Experimental Farm Station of El-Serw, Damietta Governorate, Mansoura, Agriculture Research Center (salt affected soil) and tow laboratory experiments at the Forage Crops Res. Depart., Field Crops Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, during 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 seasons.
A completely randomized blocks design with six replicates was used in the field experiments and a completely randomized design with three replicates was used in the laboratory experiments. Results revealed that all the levels of potassium foliar application treatments (0.5, 1 and 2L fad-1 of potassien) showed superiority over the control treatment (without foliar potassium). Foliar treatment with 2L fad-1 recorded the highest values of all studied growth traits, i.e, plant height, no.of branches plant-1, leaves/ stem ratio, fresh and dry forage yields compared with control. The maximum values of the above mentioned traits were 66.33cm, 5.33 no.of branches plant-1, 0.593%, 14.05ton fad-1 and 3.18ton fad-1, respectively. Moreover the highest number of head/m2, no. of seeds/head, the weight of 1000 seeds and seed yield kg fad-1 were obtained by increasing the concentration or rate of potassien application up to 2L fad-1. In addition potassien foliar applications lead to improving forages quality by increasing the content of N, P & K and protein and carbohydrate %. Results showed that application of potassien rates had a positive effects on germination %, shoot and radical lengths, dry seedling weight, seedling vigor.