Effect of Potassium Foliar Applications on Productivity and Quality of Mono-Cut Egyptian Clover under Saline Soil

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.