Two field experiments were conducted at Kafer EI-Wekala, Sherbin, El-Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt during the two summer seasons of 2013 and 2014 to study the effect of two water irrigation intervals, i.e., 10 and 15 days as well as foliar applications of some antitranspirants, i.e., control, calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate and kaolin on growth, chemical composition, yield and fruit quality of eggplant cv. black beauty cultivated under furrow irrigation system in Nile Delta lands. The results showed that the lowest irrigation interval at 10 days combined with foliar application with kaolin induced significant effect on number of branches per plant, fresh and dry weight plant, as well as leaf area, followed by irrigation with the highest interval (15 days) combined with foliar application with kaolin. Moreover, the same treatment had a significant effect on total chlorophyll, N, P, K and Fe contents of eggplant foliage followed by irrigation every 15 days combined with foliar application with kaolin. It was found also that, significant effect on number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, early and total yield per feddan of eggplant were recorded with spraying eggplant with kaolin under 10 days irrigation interval followed by spraying with kaolin under 15 days irrigation interval. Concerning to fruit quality it can said that irrigation eggplant every 10 days combined with foliar application of kaolin had the highest significant effect on TSS, vitamin C and titratable acidity in eggplant fruits followed by applying the high irrigation interval (15 days) combined with foliar application of kaolin. Generally, it can from this study recommend that it is possible to improve eggplant fruit yield and its quality by irrigation every 15 days combined with foliar spray with kaolin (4%, 4 times during the season) improve yield and quality as well as saving about 33% of the total used irrigation water quantity in eggplant production under furrow irrigation system in Nile Delta lands.

In Egypt, the impact of high temperatures on tomato production during summer season has become an urgent issue. Where the day/night temperature rising above the optimal for flowering and fruit set, consequently, the fresh market tomato prices increase about 400 to 500% during this period with inferior quality of fruits. The objective of this work was to assay new genetic resources of a set of ex situ lines and cultivars for heat-tolerant. Furthermore, selection for promising parents that would be used in developing more adaptive cultivars to heat stress. All experiments were carried out during 2013 to 2015. Fifty tomato genotypes (Lycopersicon esculentum, Mill.) were evaluated in a randomized complete blocks design under the natural heat stress conditions. The following traits; plant height, number of branches, leave area, fruit set %, total chlorophyll, chl a/b ratio, chl T/carotenoid, in addition to yield and some fruit quality traits were estimated. Based on the phenotypic performance and the genetic divergence of these genotypes, 10 parental varieties were selected for a factorial mating design using 6 as males and 4 as females. High genetic variability was observed among the genotypes for all studied traits. Mean of fruit set % ranged from 12.7 % to 66.5%. Twelve genotypes gave more than 50kg/plot where the genotypes LA0535 and BGH-0226 recorded the highest mean values of 63.15 and 61.88 kg/plot, respectively. The mean squares of GCA as well as SCA were significant for the majority of studied traits indicting the importance of both additive and non-additive types of variation for all studied traits. Among the female lines, BGH-2004 exhibited maximum positive gi effect, while among the male lines, BGH-0226 displayed highest gi effect for plant height. The cross resulted from BGH-3474 x BGH-0226 gave the highest Sij effect for fruit set % indicating that the female line BGH3474 and tester BGH-0226 produced promising progenies for vegetative traits and fruit set improvement. While the female line BGH-3474 and male line BGH-7466 gave the highest gi effects for total yield per plot. According to the variation and diversity analysis, the genotype LA0535 from group I showed stable high yield across the two summer seasons 2014 and 2015 and was a good donor for fruit set, TSS and firmness however its poor fruit in lycopene. The hybrid 2x5 showed high adaptation against heat stress under field condition in 2015 with high total yield, leave area number of branches per plant, average fruit weight and fruit firmness but low lycopene. Therefore, for hybridization program, crosses among LA0535, BGH-0025, BGH-7466 for heat tolerance and yield could be effective and promising.

Two field trials were carried out during two consecutive winter seasons of 2009/10 and 2010/2011 at Baramon Experimental Farm, Dakahlia Governorate to investigate the effect of three planting dates (1 st Nov., 15 th Nov. and 1 st Dec.) and three plant spacing (50, 60 and 70 cm) on cabbage cv. Brunswick. The trials were laid out in a split-plot design with three replicates. Results indicated that the earliest planting date (1 st of November) significantly promoted vegetative growth characters, i.e. plant weight, number and weight of outer leaves. Moreover, the earliest planting date increased average head weight, total and marketable yield. Head quality attributes, i.e. head equatorial and polar diameters, head volume, head density and dry matter content were increased when planting at the earliest planting date, compared to the later planting dates. The wider plant spacing (70 cm within row) exhibited the largest values of plant weight, number and weight of outer leaves. The wider plant spacing produced heads with larger dimensions, volume and density. Otherwise, the closer plant spacing (50 cm within row) produced larger total and marketable yield in relation to that yield produced by wider spacing. The interaction effects among the experimental factors were significant at both seasons of this investigation for plant weight, total yield and dry matter content, whereas no significant interaction was found for other studied characters.

Two field trials were conducted on potato plants cv. Spunta, in the vegetable private farm at Kafr Meet Faris, Dakahlia Governorate, during two winter seasons of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 to study the influence of foliar spray with calcium (0, 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm) and some antioxidants (control, Ascorbic acid at 300 ppm, boric acid at 100 ppm and Salicylic acid at 50 ppm) in additions to their interaction on plant growth, yield and its components as well as chemical constituents in tuber.In general, all the studied characteristics were better in plants sprayed calcium compared with the control treatment. Plant length, number of main stems/plant, number of leaves/plant, leaf area and foliage dry weight/plant, total tubers yield, marketable tubers yield, tuber dry weight, the tuber content of N, P, K, starch and TSS were increased with increasing calcium level up to 2000 ppm.Foliar spray with antioxidants led to significant increases of the vegetative growth characteristics and enhanced total yield and its components as well as chemical constituents in tuber. Foliar spray with boric acid at 100 ppm have the highest records in all studied characteristics followed by Salicylic acid in both seasons.The positive interactions between foliar spray calcium levels and foliar spray with antioxidants were often observed.The best results were obtained by plants sprayed calcium at the level of 2000 ppm and boric acid followed by Salicylic acid.Therefore, this treatment could be recommended for raising potato yield and improving tuber quality of potato under such conditions of this study.

Since late blight has become a frequent problem in Egypt, it's important to develop tomato varieties resistant or tolerant to this pathogen. The aim of this research was to assay the performance of late blight resistance gene Ph-3 transferred to some breeding lines and tomato varieties. Five lines (P5, P39, P17, Super marminde and Edkawy) and 3 testers (NC 2 CELBR, NC 25P and 163A) were used in a partial diallel mating desing to generate 15 F1 hybrids. Two individuals greenhouse experiments were conducted for screening the genotypes and evaluation their potencial for faverable traits. The parental varieties and their 15 F 1 crosses were screened against late blight under the artificial inoculation with local P. infestans strains. Three disease variables; severity at the end of epidemic (% DS), severity at the half way epidemic (Y 50) and the area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) were used in the screening of resistance. The % DS ranged from 88 % to100 % for the susceptible parental lines while this rate did not exist 21 % for the resistant testes group until the end of the evaluation period. The majority of F1 hybrids exhibited acceptable level of resistance per si, except the crosses resulted from the P05 and P39 with 163A, NC 2 CELBR and NC 25P. Both additive and non-additive gene effects were involved in the inheritance of the resistance to late blight. Mean square values of GCA were larger than SCA for all disease variables where the estimated ratio GCA/SCA were more than 1.00 which indicated that the additive gene effects were more important than the non-additive effects in the inheritance of resistance. Heterosis relative to resistant parent (H 2) for % DS ranged from-5.825 % to-37.71 %. Whereas, it was ranged from-43.94 % to-78.95% for AUDPC. Highly and significant heterosis for number of branches, yield and lycopen content were noticed in the hybrid P4 x NC 25P which may be due to sumptuous growth nature of S. habrochaites. The majority of hybrids showed negative heterosis for average fruit weight, while only the hybrid S.marminde x NC 2 CELBR have significant positive heterosis and hybrid vigor. The crosses P39 x NC 25P, P17 x NC 25P and S. marminde x NC25P were the most promising crosses having high frequency of favorable alleles with high genetic variability for selection in the advanced generations.