الفهرس Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 122 |  |  |
| | | from | 122 | | |
Abstract
The present investigation deals with the possible use of rice straw bales as ”soil – less” cultivation medium, thus escaping the problems inherent in the natural soils and avoiding the serious pollution when disposed about 5 million tons of rice straw annually by burning. Strawberry, tomato, pepper and eggplant fruits of good quality and quantity were harvested from plants cultivated on compacted rice straw bales in comparison with the natural soil. The higher temperature of 2 to 5 Co in comparison to natural soil conditions favors all physiological activities including the absorption of nutrient by the roots and thus stimulating the vegetative growth of strawberry, tomato, eggplant and pepper plants during winter season. The pH around the roots in straw bales ranged from 5.5 to 6.5, slightly acidic, while values obtained around the root system in natural soil ranged from 7.5 to 8.5. So, growing strawberry (very sensitive to salinity) on rice straw bales help avoid the problem of alkalinity and salinity in the rhizosphere. . Also, fruit rot diseases of strawberry reached 0.8 % on rice straw bales while the control recorded about 52% fruit rots. The occurrence of damping off, root rot, crown rot and root knot nematodes in strawberry plants grown in rice straw bales reached 4.0, 0.85, 0.35 and 0.0 %, respectively. However, the corresponding figures for strawberry plants grown in natural soil under the same conditions were 27.0, 16.15, 11.70 and 13.20 %, respectively, 135 days after sowing. Isolation from strawberry plants grown in natural soil showing symptoms of crown rots and black root rots yielded several fungi identified as Phytophthora cactorum, Colletotrichum fragariae, Pythium ultimum, Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum. Similar results and the same trend were recorded with tomato; pepper and eggplants cultivated on rice straw bales, compared with naturally infested soils. The wilt symptoms observed on a few tested plants on rice straw bales might be attributed to very sporadic contamination with soil particles or through irrigation water. Based on the above result, it could be recommended that using rice straw bales as a growing media in replacing naturally infested soil, can improve the production of the four tested vegetable plants under open field conditions in Egypt. Also, avoiding the serious pollution when disposed rice straw by burning.
Key words: Strawberry , tomato ,eggplant , pepper , compacted rice straw bales, Colletotrichum fragariae, Phytophthora cactorum, alkalinity , salinity, rhizosphere