الفهرس 
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Abstract
This study was conducted during the period from 2017-2019 and contained two parts of the experimental investigations. The first part consisted of one field experiment (one pre-harvest experiment) which was carried out at Vegetables Research Farm, Faculty of Agric., Mansoura Univ., Egypt and aimed to study the effect of both irrigation water type (magnetized and non-magnetized water), four mineral NPK fertilizer rates (50, 75, 100 and 125 kg/fed) and their interactions on growth and field performance of gladiolus plant (cv. Rose Supreme) cultivated under the conditions of silty loam soil with improved furrow irrigation system through black PVC plastic pipes of 63 mm diameter (El-Saady, 2016). The second part included two laboratory experiments (two post-harvest experiments) which were performed at the Research Laboratory of Vegetable and Ornamental Department, Faculty of Agric., Mansoura Univ., Egypt and aimed to investigate the impact of pre-harvest treatments in terms of magnetized and non-magnetized water and NPK fertilization treatments, some preservative solutions (AgNO3 and nan-silver at 10 ppm of each) and their interactions on maintaining post-harvest gladiolus spikes characteristics and improved their vase life. The field experiment was laid out as strip plot design, whereas the laboratory experiments were designed as a split plot design and carried out in randomized complete block design, and all means of data obtained were compared by LSD test, except for the studied factor having two levels only, their data means were compared by F test. The present study comprised of two experimental parts and the results obtained in this investigation could be summarized as follows: A- Part 1 (Field or Pre-harvest experiment): This part of this study included one field experiment as follows: Two factors were studied in this part of present investigation as pre-harvest treatments; the first one was irrigation water types (magnetized and non-magnetized water), and the second was different mineral NPK fertilizer rates (50, 75, 100 and 125 kg/fed). 1- Effect of irrigation water type. Concerning the impact of irrigation water type (magnetized and non- magnetized water) on gladiolus vegetative growth parameters (i.e., plant number/corm, plant height and leaves number/plant), leaves chemical components (N, P, K, protein and total chlorophylls), floral growth characters (flowering time (days)/plant, spikes number/plant, spike height and florets number of spike/plant) and corms yield and its components (corms number/plant, corms fresh weight/plant, corms diameter, cormels number/plant and cormels fresh weight/plant), the obtained results obviously indicated that most above tested parameters, except the attributes of vegetative growth, spike number and fresh weight and corm diameter, had significantly influenced with irrigation water type. Since, the magnetized water generally gave the best values for all forecited parameters as compared to the non-magnetized one. 2- Effect of mineral NPK fertilizer rates. Among of NPK fertilizer rates (50, 75, 100 and 125 kg/fed) used, the rate of 125 kg/fed recorded significant values for all mentioned parameters compared with 50 kg/fed of fertilizer rate. Whereas, the other applied rates registered values between the previous two extremes. 3- Effect of the interaction between irrigation water types and NPK fertilizer rates. Respecting the influence of interaction treatments, the obtained results indicated that all the forecited parameters were significantly affected with different interaction treatments. In this regard, the combination treatment between magnetized water and NPK fertilizer rate of 125/kg fed achieved significant increases for all aforementioned studied parameters as compared with interaction treatment between non-magnetized water and 50 kg fed-1 of fertilizer rate. B- Part 2 (Laboratory or Post-harvest experiments): This part of the present study consisted of two laboratory experiments as follows: B.1. First laboratory experiment: Effect of pre-harvest treatments on keeping quality of gladiolus cut spikes. Two factors were investigated in this experiment as pre-harvest treatments; the first one was irrigation water type (magnetized and non-magnetized water), and the second was some diverse mineral NPK fertilizer rates (50, 75, 100 and 125 kg/fed). The spikes obtained from each treatment of previous field treatments (8 treatments) were placed in 100 ml distilled water glass graduated cylinders contained 100 ml of distilled water provided with sucrose at 2 g/l. B.1.1. Effect of irrigation water type: Irrigation water type had mostly no significant effects on vase life of cut gladiolus spikes. However, magnetized water improved both daily and total water uptake, registered higher values for water balance, relative fresh weight, maximum increase in relative fresh weight, opened flowers, lower values of wilted flowers and slightly enhanced in vase life of gladiolus spikes, as compared with non- magnetized water. B.1.2. Effect of NPK fertilizer rates: Mineral NPK fertilizer rates had obvious significant effects on some gladiolus spikes post-harvest parameters such as (daily and total water uptake, daily water loss and daily water balance), also partial significant effects for daily opened flowers % parameter especially with the rate of 125 kg NPK/fed as compared with the rate of 50 kg NPK/fed. On the other hand, there were no significant impacts for NPK fertilizer rates on some other post-harvest parameters such as relative fresh weight, maximum increase of fresh weight and daily wilted flowers % of spikes. However, the rate of 125 kg NPK/fed generally achieved the best values for all mentioned parameters comparing the rate of 50 kg NPK/fed. B.1.3. Effect of interaction between irrigation water types and NPK fertilizer rates: The interaction treatments had clear significant influences on all aforementioned vase life characters of cut gladiolus spikes, except total water uptake, relative fresh weight and daily opened and wilted flowers for some days of vase life. Regardless of that, the interaction treatment of spikes obtained from gladiolus plants which watered with magnetized water and fertilized with 125 kg NPK/fed generally realized the best values for all post-harvest tested parameters as compared with the combination treatment of spikes produced from gladiolus plants which irrigated with magnetized water and fertilized with 50 kg NPK/fed. B.2. Second laboratory experiment: Effect of NPK fertilizer rates (as pre-harvest treatments) and some preservation solution (as post-harvest treatments) on keeping quality of gladiolus cut spikes. Two factors were studied in this experiment; the first one was mineral NPK fertilizer rates (50, 75, 100 and 125 kg/fed), and the second was some chemical preservative compounds (AgNO3 and nano-silver at 10 ppm of each) which were added and dissolved in distilled water to make solutions, 2% sucrose was added to all of them. B.2.1. Effect of NPK fertilizer rates: All of post-harvest parameters (namely, daily and total water uptake, daily water loss, daily water balance, relative fresh weight, maximum increase of fresh weight, daily opened and wilted flowers % and vase life) of gladiolus spikes had been significantly affected by NPK fertilizer rates. In this connection, the rate of 125 kg NPK/fed achieved the best values for all above mentioned parameters. Whereas, the rate of 50 kg NPK/fed recorded the worst values for these parameters. B.2.2. Effect of preservative solutions: It was clear from the obtained results that all forecited post-harvest parameters had not been significantly influenced by both of AgNO3 and nano silver treatments. However, nano silver treatment achieved the intermediately best values than AgNO3 one for all studied parameters. B.2.3. Effect of interaction between NPK fertilizer rates and preservative solutions: It is evident from the results obtained that the aforementioned post-harvest parameters, except maximum increase of fresh weight one, had been significantly impacted by combination treatments. Since, the interaction treatment of spikes obtained from gladiolus plants fertilized with 125 kg NPK/fed and placed in nano-silver solution registered the best values for all above mentioned characters. While, the interaction treatment of spikes obtained from gladiolus plants fertilized with 50 kg NPK/fed and placed in AgNO3 solution recorded the worst values for them. Conclusion The results obtained from this study indicate that for obtaining the best results in relation to both the field (growth, yield and quality) and post-harvest (quality and longevity of vase life of gladiolus cut flower spikes) performance of gladiolus, it must be apply the following conclusions under similar conditions: A. Pre-harvest experiment. 1. Using magnetized irrigation water in irrigation of gladiolus plants with fertilization of plants with mineral NPK fertilizer at either 125 kg/fed or 100 kg/fed when wanting to reduce production costs and protect the environment from pollution. B. Post-harvest experiments. B.1. First experiment: 1. Using gladiolus spikes produced from the interaction treatment of magnetized water + 125 kg NPK/fed and placed them in distilled water supplemented with 2g sucrose/l. B.2. Second experiment: 1. Using gladiolus spikes produced from the fertilization treatment by mineral NPK fertilizers at 125 kg/fed and placed them in 10 ppm nano-silver solution augmented with 2g sucrose/l.