RESPONSE OF PEANUTS TO BIOCHAR TREATMENTS AND ORGANIC FERTILIZATION UNDER SOUTH SINAI CONDITIONS

ABSTRACT
World is exposed to an increase in population and a shortage of arable water. So, in dry areas, at El-Tur, South Sinai, Egypt under new reclaimed conditions. Three years experiments were carried out during 2019, 2020 and 2021 summer seasons to study the response of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) to biochar and organic fertilization treatments. Each experiment included 16 treatments which were four organic fertilization (OF) i.e. OF₀): without organic fertilization; OF₁): 11.905 ton/ha; OF₂): 23.810 ton/ha and OF₃): 35.714 ton/ha. and four biochar treatments (B) i.e. B₀): without biochar; B₁): 5.952 ton/ha; B₂): 11.905 ton/ha and B₃): 17.857 ton/ha. Results cleared that significant differences were registered between biochar and organic fertilization treatments during the three seasons in all studied traits i.e. leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD), fresh weight/m², dry weight/m², pods number/plant, weight of pods/plant, 100 seed, seed oil %, seed protein %, seed yield ton/ha; straw yield ton/ha, biological yield ton/ha; L.E seeds (L.E /ha), L.E straw (L.E /ha), total gain (L.E /ha), and net gain (L.E /ha).
The highest seed yield 2.045 ton/ha in the 1^st season, 2.152 ton/ha in the 2^nd season and 2.217 ton/ha in the 3^nd one were produced from organic fertilization by 35.714 ton/ha. Results indicated significantly and steadily increases in all yield traits with adding biochar by 11.905 ton/ha. However, the economic peanuts seed and straw yields could be obtained from organic fertilization by 35.714 ton/ha and application of 11.905 ton/ha biochar under El-Tur area, South Sinai of Egypt. These findings offer an in-depth understanding of the benefits provided by biochar for developing sustainable agriculture.