Influence of Irrigation Scheduling and Foliar Application with some Antioxidants on Cabbage Yield, Quality and some Water Relations under Drip Irrigation System

A field experiment was established at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt during the two successive winter seasons 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to study the effect of irrigation Scheduling; irrigation with predominant farmer’s practice in the studied region as a control treatment (I1), 1.2 (I2), 1.0(I3) and 0.8%(I4) of accumulative pan evaporation (APE) and four foliar application with some antioxidants; clove oil (F1), silica nanoparticles (F2), peppermint oil (F3) and distilled water as a control (F4) on the vegetative growth characteristics, yield, quality and some water relations of cabbage under drip irrigation system. The experiments were designed as split- plot with three replications. The results indicated that the amount of applied water and water consumptive use for irrigation treatment of I2 were increased by 12.2% and11.3 %, respectively compared to control treatment. For productivity of irrigation water interaction of I4 x F2 and I4 x F1 were recorded the highest values compared to other treatments. The highest values of leaf dry weight, leaf area, outer leaves No., inner leaves No., head diameter, head parameter, mean head weight and total head yield, moreover the concentrations of vitamin C, total soluble solids, nitrogen percentage (N%), phosphorous (P%) percentage and potassium percentage (K%) on cabbage heads were recorded after I2 compared to all irrigation treatments, as well as after F2 compared to all foliar application treatments. It could be concluded that the highest values were recorded under the application of I2 x F2 interaction because it enhanced cabbage yield and its quality.