Improving crop tolerance to salinity stress is a major challenge in many regions of the world towards sustaining the global food security. In this study, an interspecific difference in salinity tolerance was examined among five Apiaceae species: Caraway, celery, dill, fennel and parsley. Saline water was used at concentrations of 0, 1000, 2000 and 3000 ppm for 15 days from seed sowing (germination experiment) or for 30 days after one month of germination (early growth stage experiment). Germination rate, seedling length and leaf water content were decreased significantly with increase in salinity levels. These were associated with significant increases in Na+ content and significant decreases in K+/Na+ ratio. Ion leakage showed no significant changes. Germination rate and seedling length are associated greatly with relative water content and less Na+ content. These results suggest that inhibition in germination and early growth stage are associated mainly with osmotic stress than ion toxicity. Mostly, proline content increased significantly under salinity stress conditions. There were significant differences among species in response to salinity stress and Celery species was the most sensitive species to salinity stress compared to others. Key words: Caraway, celery, dill, fennel, parsley, Na+, K+, osmotic stress.

Stability of yield and its attributes were assessed for nineteen genotypes over twelve environments (two seasons 2009 and 2010 × six planting dates), to determine the quantitative responses of cowpea genotypes. The interaction between genotypes and environments (G×E) were significant for all the characters studied characters except pod length, hundred seed weight and weight of pods per plant. The longest pods and heaviest hundred seeds weight were produced by genotype TVU 21, IT82C-116, providing the highest number of seeds per plant. Whereas, Sudany genotypes gave the highest number of pods per plant and heaviest seeds per plant, Blackeye Crowder genotypes had the heaviest pods per plant and total dry seed yield. The best season and planting date are fall season, third planting date (August, 15th) for most studied traits. The stable genotypes were Chinese Red, IT81D1064, IT85F2205 and Sudany for total dry seed yield. Key words: Sowing dates, stability parameters, genotype × environment, selection, grain yield.

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.), a tropical annual crop, is a highly perishable vegetable. Okra pods deteriorate rapidly after harvesting. The pods undergo physical and physiological changes that diminish storability and quality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of bio-stimulants on the storability and quality of okra pods stored at 4 °C and 25 °C for 12 days. Dipping okra pods for 5 min in a solution of 0.5% ascorbic acid, citric acid, or salicylic acid pre-storage significantly extended the shelf life and preserved the quality of the pods compared to the control condition at 4 °C and 25 °C. Citric acid and ascorbic acid were the most effective in preserving most traits. Citric acid reduced the loss in weight, firmness, appearance, and prevented decay at 4 °C and 25 °C. Ascorbic acid decreased the loss of moisture and the degradation of carbohydrates, vitamin C and lycopene at 4 °C and 25 °C. Salicylic acid decreased the degradation of protein at 25 °C. The low temperature was highly effective in decreasing the loss or degradation of most of the studied traits. Taken together, bio-stimulants and storing at 4 °C played a prominent role in extending the shelf life and preserving the quality of okra pods.

In Egypt, okra is one of the most common summer vegetable crops. High temperature is affecting significantly on okra growth, yield and fruit quality. The purpose of this study was to examine the genetic diversity of fifteen okra cultivars grown at three different planting dates. The experiment was designed in a randomized complete block with spilt plot, incorporated three replications. In the 2018 and 2019 seasons, seeds of okra cultivars were planted on 1st March (normal), 1st April (slightly late) and 1st May (late). The results revealed that planting dates had a significant impact on growth and yield characteristics. All of the growth, yield, and yield components studied traits, i.e., plant height, number of branches, number of pods per plant, fresh pod weight, total pod yield, as well as physiological trait, chlorophyll content index, were significantly reduced by late planting date on May 1st, which had extreme high temperature (> 46oC). While relative cell injury (RCI%) increased significantly. The current study's findings indicate that relative cell injury (RCI%) could be used as an effective selection criteria for selecting the cultivars with lower value of (RCI%). Also, supports the hypotheses since some okra cultivars i.e., Qena-1, Qena-2, Luxor, Qena-3 and Aswan have outstanding performance in high-temperature environments.

Constraints are reported for the low productivity and quality of onion seed production in Upper Egypt. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to study the influence of planting date and genotypes on yield and quality of onion seed production under Upper Egypt conditions where high average day /night-time of temperatures (27.4 ̊C and 11.2 ̊C) for two seasons. The results revealed significant interactions between planting date and genotypes on seed yield/plant in both seasons and the number of umbel/plant in the 2nd season. The highest seed yield (442.25 kg/fed-1) was recorded from Giza 20 planted in Early November sowing. Planted onion bulb set early- November increased seed yield (by 9.6% -17.9 % kg/fed) than grown early December. As a result, Giza 20 cultivar in early November in the current study area and other similar agroecology areas could be suggested to produce a better seed yield of onion. A principal component analysis was performed to interpret the distance between the genotypes. The average inter-cluster distance was found maximum (154.15) between G1 (Sabeeni) and G4 (Giza 20). The differences between the behavior of the seven studied traits in Giza 6 and Giza Red (Group I) are very weak, while for Sabeeni (Group III) and Shandaweel 1 (Group IV), the extent of the differences between the average traits reaches 26.5 % and 29.2% in 1st and 2nd planting dates under the conditions of Upper Egypt, thus considered 2 groups. The inter-seasonal and intra- seasonal fluctuation in both climatic parameters greatly affected the studied onion traits.