Evaluation of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Production Under Organic Manure Application with arbascular mycorrhizal fungi Adds on Sandy Soils in State of Kuwait

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Amghara Station of the State of Kuwait on date palm Barhee cv with ten treatment combinations involving different sources and levels of organic manure application in conjunction with arbascular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on sandy soils during 3 seasons (2013-2016). The experimental design adopted was RCBD with five replications. The results showed that the Date palm Tamar fruit yield increased with increasing rates of sewage sludge and compost manure as compared to control. The influence of sewage sludge in conjunction with AMF on the Tamar yield of crop was more pronounced than that of compost manure. Such an increase in the yield may be attributed to the improvement in the fruit yield parameters such as number of fruiting spikelet’s and fruits per bunch; weight, length and girth of fruit. An experiment was conducted at Amghara Station of the State of Kuwait on date palm Barhee cv with ten treatment combinations involving different sources and levels of organic manure application in conjunction with arbascular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on sandy soils during 3 seasons (2013-2016). The experimental design adopted was RCBD with five replications. The results showed that the Date palm Tamar fruit yield increased with increasing rates of sewage sludge and compost manure as compared to control. The influence of sewage sludge in conjunction with AMF on the Tamar yield of crop was more pronounced than that of compost manure. Such an increase in the yield may be attributed to the improvement in the fruit yield parameters such as number of fruiting spikelet’s and fruits per bunch; weight, length and girth of fruit. On an average over 3 years, application of 10 t/ha of sewage sludge (71.97 t/ha or 22.57% increase) or compost manure (70.00 t/ha or 19.31% increase) along with AMF over control (58.43 t/ha) could be recommended to date palm to increase the yield levels and fertility status especially the organic matter content of the soil.