Two pots experiments were carried out during two successive
seasons of 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 at Faculty of Agriculture,
Fayoum University to study the response of Egyptian lupine plant
cv. Giza 2 grown in calcareous soil to foliar application with active
dry yeast at different concentrations. Plants were sprayed three
times with yeast concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7
and 0.8%. The obtained results during the two studied seasons
revealed that, growth characters of Egyptian lupine plant cv. Giza 2,
i.e., plant height, root length, number of leaves /plant, leaf area,
number of branches /plant and fresh as well as dry weights were
significantly increased at active dry yeast concentrations over 0.1%
comparing to those of unsprayed plants. The maximum growth
values were attained at concentrations of 0.5%. Yield and most its
components represented by peduncle length, number of pods,
number of seeds, weight of pods, weight of seeds and seeds
yield/plant as well as weight of 100-seeds were also increased at
active dry yeast concentrations higher than 0.1%. However the
enhancement growth characters due to yeast application was more
observed from anatomical studies. Where sections diameters of
roots, stems and leaf petiole were increased, resulting from
increasing phelloderm thickness and diameter of vascular cylinder
for root; average cortical cell diameter, thickness of vascular
cylinder for stem and vascular bundle dimensions for leaf petiole.
Also medvein and blade thickness were increased in plants sprayed
with yeast especially at concentrations higher than o.5%. Such
increases resulted from increasing palisade and spongy tissues
thickness and vascular bundle dimensions. Yeast application had
stimulatory effect on N.P.K, chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids
concentrations in Egyptian lupine leaves and total carbohydrates,
total N, protein and total alkaloids in dry seeds.