Alleviation of Salinity Effects on Green Bean Plants Using Some Environmental Friendly Materials

Towards the improvement of production efficiency of marginal quality soil and/or water, this work was designed to investigate the mitigation effects of potassium humate and compost applications on salinity negative effects on green bean plant Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Pulista grown under Egyptian conditions during the spring seasons of 2008 and 2009. Plants were grown in pots filled with washed sand and were irrigated with three levels of saline water namely 0.5, 2.0 and 3.0 dS/m. All plants were fed with standard fertilization. Treatments were Control, potassium humate treatments in a rate of 2 and 4 g/l and compost in a rate of 10 and 20m 3 /feddan. Data recorded after 45 days showed that increasing salinity reduced all plant growth parameters including yield and pod quality with the reduction in yield reaching 20 and 47% for EC of 2 and 3 dS/m respectively compared to the lowest level of salinity. The effect of potassium humate and compost application was positive and increased yield compared to control (no addition of compost or potassium humate) by 20% and 41% with the application of high rates of potassium humate and compost respectively. The interaction effect significantly reduced plant growth particularly with the high level of salinity. High levels of potassium humate and compost mitigated the negative effects of salinity on plant growth and production however, there was some observable effects of salinity. The data indicated that there might be another factor such as specific ion effect that reduced the effects of potassium humate or compost.