RESPONSE OF RED CABBAGE PLANTS GROWN ON SALT AFFECTED SOIL TO DIFFERENT COMPOST SOURCES WITH FOLIAR APPLICATION OF SOME ANTIOXIDANTS UNDER SOIL ADDITION OF SULFUR

The scientific community is seeking to find solutions that will restore degraded soils such as salt-affected soil and mitigate the negative effects of soil salinity So, a field trial was performed during two successive seasons to determine the effect of different compost sources i.e., plant residues compost, FYM compost and town refuse compost (at rate of 7.50 ton fed-1 for all of them) as main plots and sulfur fertilization as subplots [once in the presence of elemental sulfur (at rate of 150 kg fed-1) and other in the absence of agricultural sulfur] as well as external application of antioxidants as sub-subplots [0.0 (control), proline and ascorbic at rate of 80.0 mg L-1 for both of them ] on the performance of red cabbage plants grown on salt affected soil

The main results of the current study can be summarized as follows;

The maximum values of growth and yield parameters of red cabbage plants expressed in plant height, chlorophyll and carotene contents, leaf area, head length, No of heading outer leaves plant-1, head diameter and weight and yield as well as quality traits e., anthocyanin pigment, vitamin C and TDS were recorded when the plants treated with the FYM compost followed by that treated with plant residues compost and lately that treated with town refuse compost.
Also, the performance of red cabbage treated with sulfur was better than that grown without sulfur fertilization.
Regarding foliar application treatments, the superior treatment was proline, while the treatment of ascorbic acid came in the second order compared to control treatment which came in the last order
Salinity stress led to raise antioxidants production in red cabbage plant to hinder the hazard effect of ROS, which were produced due to salinity stress, while studied treatments led to a decline of the red cabbage plant's self-production from antioxidants
The current investigation confirms that all different compost sources had a vital role in improvement the performance of red cabbage plants grown on salt affected soil Application of elemental sulfur is a very effective technique to improve the quantity and quality of red cabbage production under salt-affected soils Foliar application of both proline and ascorbic acid improves red cabbage growth performance and this is usefully reflected on head yield, where both proline and ascorbic acid can inhibit the impact of salt-affected soil stress, but proline amino acid is more effective than ascorbic acid. Generally, it can be concluded that both studied organic amendments as well as the studied antioxidants have a vital role in improving productivity of red cabbage grown on salt affected soil Moreover, it can be said that the treating red cabbage with the combined treatment of FYM compost x sulfur fertilization x proline was the best for reducing harmful effect of soil salinity