Influence of sowing date, production method and cultivars on broccoli transplants

production

[59]

EL-Hifny¹, I.M.; M.M.F. Abdallah² and S. S. Gomaa¹

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted in two seasons to investigate the influence of four sowing dates (August 5^th, August 20^th, September 5^th and September 20^th) and two transplant production methods (sowing into soil bed surface in open field or sowing in 84 eyes foam trays under 67% shading screen) on transplants production of broccoli cultivars (Calabria and Emperor). The results showed that September 5^th sowing date produced the longest transplant, shoot and root length, highest leaves number, heaviest transplant, shoot and root weight and highest leaves content  of  total  chlorophyll, followed by sowing on August 20^th . On the other hand August 5^th  sowing date produced the lowest values in this respect. The transplant characters were not affected significantly by any broccoli cultivar and their interaction with sowing date, except shoot and root length and leaves content of total chlorophyll. Open field transplant production method showed superiority in most transplant characters, especially shoot length and leaves content of total chlorophyll, compared with shading screen transplant production method, except root length that showed  opposite  effect.  Satisfactory  transplants  characters  were  obtained when seeds of both broccoli cultivars were sowing on September 5^th in open field transplants production method. Both cultivars recorded the highest survival ratio when seeded on September 5^th under shading screen transplant production method.