IMPROVING FABA BEAN PRODUCTIVITY IN SALT-AFFECTED SOIL THROUGH CALCIUM NUTRITION

Two field experiments were conducted in Wadi El-Natroon Desert Experimental Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt,during two successive winter season (2017/18 and 2018/19) to study the performance of two faba bean varieties (Sakha-1 and Nubaria3)as affected by three levels of Calcium nutrition (0, 2 and 4 g Ca/liter) under three dates for applying Calcium (45,60 and 45 & 60 days from sowing date). The design used was A split-spilt plot design with three replications. The main plots consisted of the varieties, sub-plots were allocated to the dates of applying Calcium, while sub-sub plots were devoted to the calcium concentration.The collecting results could be summarized as follows: the greatest performance of the two varieties was obtained from treatment by 4 g Ca/L which recorded the highest number of branches, pods and seeds/plant, seed index, seed yield/feddan and harvest index.In general, Sakha-1 recorded the higher seed yield/feddan comparing to Nubaria3. The highest seed yield/ feddan was obtained from calcium application at 4 g/liter combined with Sakha-1 and time of applingCalcuim at 45 & 60 days.