Effect of irrigation treatments and cyanobacteria mixed with different nitrogen fertilization levels on wheat yield and quality grown on sandy soils

A pot experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions during the two winter seasons 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, at the farm of Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt to study the effect irrigation water treatments (a1= tap water and a2= saline water) and cyanobacteria inoculation combined with different nitrogen levels (b1 = 100% N, b2 = 75% N + Nostoc muscorum, b3 = 50 % N + Nostoc muscorum, b4 = zero % N + Nosto cmuscorum and b5 = control) on the yield and quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum, L. variety Giza 171) grown on sandy soil. The results indicated that, the studied parameters considered in this study were significantly affected by the utilized irrigation water treatments, cyanobacteria inoculation combined with different nitrogen levels and their interactions. Herein, it was observed that, salinity stress decreased the agronomic and quality attributes of wheat. Moreover, wheat plants retained the best values for plant height (cm), number of spikes per plant, spikes dry weight per pot (g), grains dry weight per pot (g), 1000 grain weight (g) and grain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content at the application of tap water compared to those irrigated with saline water. Regarding to cyanobacteria effect under three quarter or half recommended doses of N % improved growth and yield attributes of wheat plant grown under salinity stress via increasing plant tolerance to salinity stress. The obtained results showed that, wheat plants treated with 75% N + Nostoc muscorum, recorded the best values for most of studied characters as compared with control.