Fig (Ficus carica L.) considers the original cultivated fruit trees and currently has become extinct. Such genetic resources should be identified, documented, and conserved. Morphology, pomology, and molecular markers are successful tools in assessing genetic diversity and classifying fig accessions. Twenty-one cultivated fig (F. carica L.) accessions were collected from Egypt and Libya. In Egypt, fig accessions are dispersed from Sinai in the east to El-Saloom in the west and from Alexandria in the north to Aswan in the south, whereas Libyan accessions were collected from Tubryq, Bengazi, and AlKufrah. Seventeen morphological, pomological, and fruit traits were used to characterize the fig accessions. Moreover, frozen young leaves were used to extract genomic DNA; 13 expressed sequence tag (EST) common fig primer pairs with 12 intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR)-anchored primers were used to detect the genetic diversity. Analysis of variance for fig accessions showed highly significant differences concerning morphological traits, i.e., the leaf length (centimeters) and width (centimeters) ranged from 5.4 and 6 cm to 23 and 23.5 cm, for Komesrey-El-Hammam, Abodey-Giza, and Black_Mission accessions, respectively. Also, fig accessions showed different shapes of leaf edge and fruits; they were categorized into four groups: straight, waved, zigzag, and serrated. The number of leaf lobes data ranged from one lobe for the ‘Green-yellow’, ‘Sultani Red Siwa’, and ‘Sultany Red Amria’ accessions to 10 lobes in the Aswany accession. The two-way hierarchical morphological cluster analysis distributed fig accessions into two main groups. The results detected high genetic diversity for the fig accessions that could be useful in the future breeding programs. Concerning molecular data, the EST markers showed highly polymorphism and informative (r = 0.61; 90.0%), with a total number of identified alleles of 78. We proved that a relatively greater number of alleles per locus characterizes the targeted loci among fig accessions, for which only one and two alleles per locus have been revealed, respectively, although ISSR showed a clear pattern and bands of the primers UBC807, UBC811, UBC812, UBC814, UBC815, UBC817, UBC818, and UBC823. In conclusion, a great range of variability was detected within the fig accessions. This diversification could enrich the genetic base of this genus, and more experiments are needed to reach its full potential.

Although the application of chemical fertilizers to crops promotes plant growth and yield, their continuous use affects soil heath and creates environmental pollution. On the other hand, plant biostimulants improve nutrients absorption, plant growth, yield and produce quality and are environment-friendly. Therefore, an experiment was conducted during 2021-22 to evaluate the effect of some biostimulants on the performance of the apple cv. Anna, planted in a sandy loam soil at Marsa Matruh governorate, Egypt. Ninety trees were randomly selected and sprayed with 4 or 6% moringa leaf extract (MLE), 0.3 or 0.4% seaweed extract (SWE), 1000 or 2000 mg L−1 Fulvic acid (FA), 4% MLE + 0.3% SWE + 1000 mg L−1 FA (combination 1), or 6% MLE + 0.4% SWE + 2000 mg L−1 FA (combination 2) before flowering, during full bloom and one month later and compared with a control (untreated trees). The results demonstrated that spraying MLE, SWE or FA or their combinations positively improved the vegetative growth, fruit set %, fruit yield and fruit physical and chemical characteristics as well as leaf nutritional status. The positive effect of MLE, SWE and FA was increased in parallel to an increase in the used concentration of each one of them. The highest increments in the measured parameters were accompanied by the application of combination 2 over the other treatments.

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The excessive use of chemical fertilizers in fruit orchards has led to numerous problems for the environment, produce quality, and food safety. It also negatively affects soil health, beneficial microorganisms, and ground water quality, hence the resurgence of the application of biostimulants as ecofriendly ways to improve the growth, yield, and fruit quality of tree fruits. The current study was performed during 2021 and 2022 to investigate the influence of foliar spraying of 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/L humic acid (HA); 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/L brassinosteroids (Brs); and 1000, 2000, and 3000 mg/L seaweed extract (SWE) compared with a control (untreated trees) in terms of the performance of an apricot (Prunus armeniaca) cv. Canino. The obtained results show that the spraying of HA, Brs, and SWE positively increased the shoot length, leaf area, leaf chlorophyll content, fruit set, fruit yields, and fruit physical and chemical characteristics, as well as leaf macro- or micronutrients contents compared with those untreated trees during both study years. Moreover, the increase in parameter values was parallel to the increase in the used concentrations of HA, Brs, or SWE, where 2000 mg/L HA, 2 mg/L Brs, and 3000 mg/L SWE were superior to 1000 mg/L HA, 1 mg/L Brs, and 2000 mg/L SWE, which were better than 500 mg/L HA, 0.5 mg/L Brs, and 1000 mg/L SWE.

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most important fruit crops. The present experiment was carried out during 2020-2021 seasons, in order to study the effect of some growth stimuli on growth behavior, nutritional status and productivity of 10-year old Keitt mango trees grown in sandy soil at a private orchard, Badr city, El-Beheira governorate, Egypt. The treatments were the control (untreated trees), chitosan at 30, 60 and 90 ppm, spermidine at 5, 10 and 20 ppm, vermicomposting leachate (VLC) at 10, 15, and 20% and potassium silicate at 400, 500 and 600 ppm and sprayed four times a month before flowering, at the beginning of flowering, at full bloom and three weeks after the contract. The obtained results showed that, all treatments caused an improve in traits under study, the highest values of the number of flowering panicle (353.3 and 352.3), the number of hermaphrodites/ panicle (695 and 696.6), hermaphrodites flowers (46 and 45.6 %), fruit set (18.4 and 18.6 %) and the number of fruits / tree (128 and 127) were obtained by 5 ppm spermidine, in the two seasons also followed by the lowest concentration of chitosan (30 ppm). The highest value of total yield was obtained by 5 ppm (70 and 71.6 kg/ tree,) and 10 ppm (67.6 and 66.3 kg/tree) concentrations of spermidine also followed by the lowest concentration of chitosan (30 ppm) in 2020 and 2021. The highest values of fruit weight (556.3 and 557.3 g.), vitamin C content (50 and 52 mg/ 100 ml juice) and leaf K content (3.3 and 3.3 % resp.) were obtained by 600 ppm potassium silicate treatment. In the meantime, the highest value of fruit TSS (%), total sugars (%) and leaf N and P content was obtained by potassium silicate at 600 ppm and VCL at 20 % treatments. As for acidity (%), the highest values were recorded when using the three concentrations of spermidine (5, 10 and 20 ppm) compared to the control, while the lowest values were obtained by using the highest concentration of VCL (20%) and potassium silicate (600 ppm) (0.20 and 0.22 %) for the two treatments, resp., in the two seasons.