ABSTRACT
The current investigation was executed at in a private the Orchard, located at El-Grayb Sahel Selim district, Assiut Governorate, Egypt, to study the effect of different organic manure sources and bio-form fertilizers on growth and fruiting of Manfalouty pomegranate trees during 2021 and 2022 seasons. The experiment was arranged in a complete randomized block design with four replications and it consisted of nine treatments, including fertilizing trees with 50% of mineral nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and the other 50% being given in the form of organic fertilizer, chicken manure, compost, cattle manure, or sugar cane vinasse, with or without bio fertilization. The results can be summarized as follow:
All fertilization treatments improved growth, leaf total chlorophyll and nutritional status as soon as yield and fruit quality of Manfalouty pomegranate trees.
Using 50 % of the recommended dose of mineral nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium + chicken manure with bio fertilizers treatment was a superior whereas, it significantly increased the shoot length, leaf area, chlorophyll and contents of N, P and K in leaves compared to mineral-N source only (check treatment).
All organic and bio fertilizers treatments significantly increased the yield/tree and commercial fruit % and significantly decreased the fruit splitting and sunburn percentage compared to use check treatment.
Fertilization with any thrice form (mineral + organic + bio) significantly improved the fruit properties by increasing the fruit weight, arils percentage and total soluble solids as well as sugar, anthocyanin and vitamin C contents and decreasing the total acidity compared to use the check treatment. It is clear from the current results the importance of fertilization through organic and bio-form for pomegranates productivity, via improve the fruit quality which reflects on induce the increase packable yield. In addition, such fertilization treatments reduce environmental pollution.