Background: This work was carried out through 2017 and 2018 seasons on tow olive cultivars (Kalmata and Manzanillo). Trees were 15 years old, grown in sandy soil, planted at 5 × 5 m apart, and irrigated with saline water through drip irrigation system. This investigation aimed to improve vegetative growth and its mineral contents of the tow olive cultivars. Trees were sprayed with calcium at 0.5% as calcium chloride (21% Ca) and chelated calcium. Results:The results revealed that there were significant differences with calcium source treatment regarding vegetative growth and leaf mineral contents. Conclusions: Results proved that olive trees sprayed at the end of December with 0.5% calcium as chelated calcium was the promising treatment for good vegetative growth and leaf mineral contents.

Background This work was carried out through 2017 and 2018 seasons on Kalmata and Manzanillo olive cultivars. Trees were 15 years old, grown in sandy soil and planted at 5 × 5 m apart irrigated with saline water through drip irrigation system. This investigation aimed to improve flowering, fruit set, yield and fruit quality of the tow olive cultivars. Trees were sprayed with calcium at 0.5% as calcium chloride (21% Ca) and chelated calcium. Results The results revealed that there were significant differences with calcium source treatment regarding number of inflorescences/shoot, no. of total flowers/inflorescences, sex expression, initial fruit set, final fruit set (%) and yield/kg (tree) and decreasing fruit drop (%) of olive oil Kalmata and Manzanillo cultivars compared with unsprayed in both seasons. Conclusions Results proved that olive trees sprayed at the end of December with 0.5% calcium as chelated calcium was the promising treatment for good flowering, fruit set, yield and fruit quality.

The effect of foliar spray with algae extract and/or potassium nitrate on the quantity and quality of Barhee date palm yields was investigated during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Inflorescences of Barhee date palms were sprayed twice, after pollination (1st April of each season) and one month later, with algae extract at concentrations of 0.5% and 1.0% and with potassium nitrate at concentrations of 1% and 2% applied individually or in combinations. The obtained results showed that all of the sprayed treatments enhanced the yield and fruit properties when compared to the controls. Spraying inflorescences of Barhee date palms with algae extract and/or potassium nitrate had a significant effect on the yield and on the physical and chemical properties of the fruit when compared with the untreated palms. The increase in yield and qualitative properties was associated with increasing concentrations of both materials (algae extract and potassium nitrate). The best results were detected with spray containing high rates of combined treatment (1% algae extract + 2% potassium nitrate) applied twice in both seasons studied because this treatment resulted in the highest value of fruit and bunch weight, increased the yield per palm compared to the control by about 60.2%, and improved the fruit physical properties (fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit shape index, flesh weight, and seed weight) and fruit chemical properties (total soluble solids (TSS); acidity; TSS/acid ratio; tannins; and reducing, nonreducing, and total sugars) of the Barhee date palm given the experimental conditions.

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