International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Abstract
This study was carried out in the two seasons of 2017 and 2018 on five-year-old peach Florida prince cv. trees grown in sandy silt soil at 3×5 m apart under drip irrigation system of a private peach orchard located at Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. The trees were sprayed with nano-chitosan at 10, 20, 30 and 40 ppm, nano-silicon at 200, 400 and 600 ppm and potassium silicate at 1000, 2000 and 3000 ppm as well as water (control treatment). The results showed that the highest yield / tree, number of harvested fruits / tree and fruit weight for trees treated with nano-chitosan at 10 and 20 ppm in comparison with those sprayed with water and other treatments. Trees were sprayed by nano-silicon at all rates gained the greatest number of flowers/ branch, flower density and fruit set percentage. The trees sprayed with nanosilicin at 600 ppm recorded longest shoot length, largest shoot diameter and highest leaves number/ shoot, while, least values of them were from unsprayed trees (control). The largest leaf area was recorded for trees were sprayed with nano-silicon at 200 ppm, 400 ppm and 600 ppm without significant differences between them
