The Growth and Production of Jojoba Plant under NPK- Fertilization and Irrigation with Industrial Wastewater

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Soil Fertility and Microbiology Department, Water Resources and Desert Soils division, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

This research aims to study the growth and production of jojoba plant as abiofuel crop under fertilization with N, P & K and irrigation with industrial wastewater as a source of untraditional irrigation water. So, over two consecutive growing seasons on 6th year fruiting Jojoba shrubs grown on sandy soil at private orchards located in El-Assiuty Valley, Assiut Governorate, Egypt (27o12'18.2" N & 30o59'20.0"E), a field experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with split plot technique where the main factor was the different nitrogen sources (i.e. urea "U", ammonium sulphate "AS", ammonium nitrate "AN"and calcium nitrate "CA") at 240kgNha-1, while the sub main factor was allocated for five combinations of P and K fertilizer as follows [control; no application, P1; 75P2O5ha-1, K1; 60kgK2Oha-1, P1K1; 75P2O5 + 60kgK2Oha-1 and P2K2; 150P2O5 + 120kgK2Oha-1]. Results indicated that using 240kgNha-1 as ammonium sulphate with 150P2O5 + 120kgK2Oha-1 showed the highest significant increasing in most of the studied parameters such as nutrients availability, vegetative growth, and yield of jojoba plants. Bioconcentration factor (BCF) for heavy metals in leaves and seeds of jojoba shrub showed a trend in the following order; Cu > pb > Mn > Zn > Fe. More future researches are still required to study the side effects of using artificial wastewater on oil quality of jojoba seeds.

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History

  • Receive Date: 30 September 2020
  • Revise Date: 24 December 2020
  • Accept Date: 18 January 2021

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