Effect of Potash Fertilization on Yield and Quality of Cotton, Maize, Watermelon and Hazelnuts in Turkey

The objectives of this project were to: 1) determine the effect of balanced fertilization on the yield of major crops of the common cropping systems in Egypt, and 2) promote and extend to farmers the most efficient fertilization and irrigation techniques. For accomplish this, field experiments were conducted at three locations with the following seven treatments: 1) no fertilizer; 2) NPK according to the farmer's practice; 3) NP at the recommended rate; 4) NK as recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture; 5) NPK as recommended by Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture; 6) NPK based on soil testing; and 7) NPK based on soil testing + micronutrients.

For all crops and at the two locations, balanced fertilization helped maximize yield and yield components. At El-Behira site, wheat grain yield was the highest (6.5 t/ha) for the NPK+micronutrients treatment, whereas the control and the farmers' practice resulted in the lowest yields (2.2 and 4.2 t/ha, respectively). A similar trend was observed in the maize crop, where the highest yield (7.1 t/ha) was obtained with the NPK+micronutrients, while control and farmers' practice gave 2.3 and 3.1 t/ha, respectively. Similarly, at El-Monofia site, wheat grain yield was the highest (6.4 t/ha) for the NPK+micronutrients treatment, while the control and farmers' practice resulted in the lowest yields (4.4 and 4.8 t/ha, respectively). The lupine as a summer crop recorded the highest yield (1.94 t/ha) with NPK+micronutrients, while the control and farmers' practice gave 1.3 and 1.4 t/ha, respectively.