The study was executed from the period of 2014 to 2015 seasons at the tissue culture
laboratory of the Horticulture department, Faculty of Agriculture – Assiut University
In vitro grown banana plantlets of Grand Nain and Zeev cultivars were treated with
NaCl at 0,30,60,120, and 200 mM/L to study the effect of salinity stress on the plantlets
or with PEG at 0,10,20,30, and 40g/L for drought investigation. The obtained results
could be concluded as follow:
1-Effect of salinity: Plantlet height, fresh weight, dry weight and number of
leaves/plantlet significantly decreased by increasing the NaCl concentration from Zero
to 200 mM/L for both tested cultivars during 2014 and 2015 season. Total chlorophyll
and K+ content significantly decreased, while sodium content significantly increased by
increasing NaCl concentrations as compared with untreated plantlets (control).
2- Effect of drought: The effect of PEG at different concentrations took approximately
the same tendency as NaCl concentrations concerning the vegetative and chemical
characterestcs of both Grand Nain and Zeev plantlets during both investigated seasons

This experiment was carried out during two successive seasons 2015 and
2016 on the orchard of Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University. This study
aimed to investigate the effect of potassium sulfate (K) fertilizer at different
rates, application times and method of application on yield parameters and fruit
properties of old trees of Balady orange cv. The obtained results showed that all
K treatments significantly increased the fruit set (%), number of fruits/tree, total
yield/tree (kg), fruit weight (g), fruit height and diameter (cm) as compared with
control (untreated trees) during both experimental seasons. Moreover, the three
times applications and foliar sprays were more effective than twice applications
and ground adding of potassium sulfate (K), respectively.
The lowest values of these parameters, were recorded in control (untreated
trees), while the foliar application of 666 g + 90 mlsprays /tree of potassium sulfate
(K) three times gave the highest values during both tested seasons.

This study was carried out during two consecutive seasons (2015 and 2016)
on Sewy date palm cultivar grown in new reclaimed sandy soil at private orchard
located at Al Assiuty valley, Assuit, Egypt. The effect of spraying algae extract,
boron and silicon nutrients each alone or their combination on some vegetative
growth characteristics, yield and some physical and chemical fruit traits were
studied. The results showed that spraying algae extract, boron and silicon was
very effective on enhancing vegetative growth characteristics, yield as will as
some physical and chemical fruit properties. The promotion increased with increasing
the concentration of algae extract and their combinations. In general, the
best results of this study were recorded when using algae extract 0.3% + Boron
0.05% +Silicon 0.1% compared with the other investigated treatments.

Twenty fresh clover honey, ten beeswax and ten bee bread samples represented contaminated and non-contaminated areas were collected directly from the apiaries during 2015. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of toxic metals (Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn)) in honey, beeswax and bee bread stored inside honey bee colonies. The highest lead contents (0.5488 mg/kg) was estimated in honey samples collected from industrialized area The lowest Pb content were estimated in honey samples collected from rural area (0.5096 mg/kg). The lowest Cd concentration (0.0961 mg/kg). However, the highest content of Cd (0.1042 mg/kg) was recorded in honey samples collected from urbanized areas. High concentration of (Cu) was estimated in honey samples collected from apiaries located in industrialized area (0.0757 mg/kg) while the lowest were recorded in rural area (0.0432 mg/kg). Zn occurred in low concentration in honey samples The highest value was recorded in honey samples from rural area (0.241) mg/kg and the lowest in honey samples from apiaries located in Reclaimed soils (0.185) mg/kg. Heavy metal concentrations of Pb, Cd, Fe, Cu and Zn in beeswax samples collected from contaminated and noncontaminated areas were 1.388, 0.194, 16.696, 0.619 and 4.606 mg/kg. While the averages of heavy metal concentrations in non contaminated area decreased to 1.175; 0.160; 15.466; 0.391 and 2.520 mg/kg, respectively. Contamination in bee bread samples showed that lead concentration (1.094 mg/kg to 1.338 mg/kg) was detected in bee bread samples collected from honey bee 

The present study aimed to investigate the potential application of chitosan for controlling green mold disease of orange fruits (“Baladi” sweet orange fruits) caused by Penicillium digitatum under in vitro and in vivo conditions (during storage conditions). The effect of chitosan under different concentrations (0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2) % v/v was evaluated against P. digitatum (in vitro). The reported data indicated that conc. 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2% v/v of chitosan showed the highest inhibitory effect against the target pathogen. The in vivo experiments (under artificial infection), showed that the disease severity was significantly reduced in chitosan treated fruits at conc. (0.25, 0.5 and 1% v/v) compared with control. Moreover, it was noticed that chitosan solution at 1% conc. was the best conc. in reducing the percentage of disease severity, followed by 0.5% v/v. The effect of chitosan at (0.25, 0.5 and 1% v/v) conc. was also studied on some physical and chemical characteristics at 4 °C during two successive seasons. Interestingly, chitosan at 1% followed by 0.5% decreased fruits decay percentage, 0.5% and 1% significantly decreased fruits weight loss percentage, increased total soluble solids (TSS) and V.C content in fruits. The uses of edible coating of chitosan solution (0.5 and 1%) were more effective to preserve high quality of “Baladi” sweet orange during storage 4 °C for 8 weeks with good chemical and physical qualities as well as chitosan could be successfully used to inhibit the decay fungi compared with uncoated samples.