Effect of Water Source and Weeding on: (B) Seed Yield of three Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Cultivars

A field experiment was carried out during 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons at the Demonstration Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, to study the effect of water source and weeding on seed production of three alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars. The treatments included three alfalfa cultivars: a local cultivar, Hegazi and two exotic cultivars, Cuf101 and Siriver. The water treatments were: Bore hole water, river water with screen mesh at the entrance of plots and river water without screen mesh. Three levels of weeding were applied: Monthly weeding, every two months and every three months. The treatments were assigned in a split-split plot design with watering as the main plots, weeding as the sub-plots and cultivars as the subsub-plots. The studied parameters were: Number of racemes per plant, number of pods per raceme, number of seeds per pod, 1000-seed weight and seed yield per plant and per hectare. The treatments were replicated four times. The two introduced cultivars were significantly better than the local one in number of racemes per plant, number of pods per raceme and total seed yield . The three cultivars were similar in number of seeds per pod, and 1000-seed weight number of pods per raceme and number of seeds per pod. However, the river screened water treatment was significantly superior in number of racemes per plant, 1000-seed weight and total seed yield. In all these parameters, the river water without screening treatment recorded the lowest estimates. Monthly weeding treatment showed a significant increase in 1000-seed weight and total seed yield than the other weeding levels.