On Farm Trials

Effect of using biofertilizers on cucumber production under water stress conditions

Status: مشاريع منجزة
Year: 2021.00000000000
Project type  
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​​​​​​ Background

One of the most important strategies of sustainable agriculture inside greenhouses is to provide alternative solutions to overcome the problem of irrigation water shortage, whether by increasing the efficiency of plants in using water or improving the soil’s ability to retain water for long periods. The use of biofertilizers in the field of agricultural production is one of the modern fields that aim to implement sustainable solutions to improve agricultural production in areas that suffer from a lack of soil fertility or improve plant growth when the necessary irrigation quantities for agriculture are not available, as is the case in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Experiment Setup

  • Planting date: May 15, 2021
  • First harvest: June 6, 2021
  • Last harvest: October 7, 2021
  • Harvest period: 121 days
  • Variety: Zahran
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Goals

Study of the effect of using bacterial biofertilizers on the production and quality of cucumbers inside medium-tech greenhouses, under conditions of irrigation water shortage

Study of the efficiency of biofertilizers extracted from Saudi lands (local product) compared to imported fertilizers commercially available in the markets

The main factors studied are:

  • Water stress (30% reduction in irrigation water)
  • Commercial bacterial fertilizer available in the local market
  • Three bacterial biofertilizers developed by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
  • K1: Cronobacter muytiensii (JZ38)
  • K2: Enterobacter sp (SA187)
  • K3: Pesudomonas argentinensis (SA190)
  • The biofertilizers were added 3 times during the growth period at a rate of one dose every 3 weeks
Result overview

The crop

  • The average percentage of increase in yield resulting from adding fertilizers was 12.2% under water stress conditions and 8.6% with normal irrigation
  • The biofertilizers developed by KAUST showed the ability to improve total production compared to the commercial fertilizer, as cucumber plants treated with K2 biofertilizer produced the highest yield (.230 kg/m2) under normal irrigation conditions compared to the control (27.6 kg/m2)
  • The K3 biofertilizer gave an increase in cucumber yield (22.6 kg/m2) compared to the control (19.5 kg/m2) under water stress conditions

 


 


Water use efficiency

  • The commercial biofertilizer did not improve water use efficiency under either water stress or normal irrigation conditions.

  • The K3 biofertilizer gave a higher water use efficiency under water stress conditions of about 17 L/kg, while untreated plants gave 18.9 L/kg.

  • The K2 biofertilizer showed a higher water use efficiency under normal irrigation conditions of about 20.8 L/kg, while untreated plants gave 22.7 L/kg.



 


 

Conclusion

The results of the Sustainability Center research experiments showed that the use of K2 and K3 biofertilizers developed by KAUST University has a positive effect on increasing the crop by approximately (10%), as well as increasing the efficiency of water use in normal irrigation conditions or water stress (30% less water), which confirms the importance of biofertilizers as one of the inexpensive sustainable agriculture inputs in the Kingdom.

Applied benefits

Biofertilizers led to an increase in the cucumber crop inside medium-tech greenhouses under normal irrigation conditions or water stress (30% less water)

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edit icon Last Modified 23 Sep 2024 12:53 PM

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