Agriculture & Food, Volume 3, 2015

Abstract: The alleviation of adverse salinity effects to increase faba bean productivity is an important agronomic practice. Two field experiments were conducted in the Desert Experimental Station of the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University in Wadi El-Natroon, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt, during the two winter seasons of 2012/13and 2013/14 to investigate the effect of three treatments of calcium nutrition (0, 1 and 2g Ca/liter) and two plant densities (26 and 52 plant/m2) on three faba bean varieties (Sakha-1, Sakha-2 and Nubaria-2) under saline soil conditions. A split-spilt plot design with four replications was used. The main plots consisted of calcium treatments, sub-plots were allocated to varieties, while sub-sub plots were devoted to plant densities (26 and 52 plant/m2). The obtained results could be summarized as follows: calcium application as foliar spray was significantly increased number of branches and pods/plant, weight of seeds/plant, seed index, seed yield and harvest index. In general, sakha-1 cv. recorded the highest seed yield/hectare. The plant density of 52 plants/m2 recorded the highest seed yield and harvest index. The interaction between calcium nutrition and varieties had a significant effect on weight of seeds/plant, seed index and harvest index, in both seasons. The highest seed yield/ hectare was obtained from calcium application at 2 g/liter combined with Sakha-1 and 52 plants/m2.