الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study was conducted during two successive winter seasons of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 under high plastic tunnels in a private farm at Behbate El-hegara village, Samannoud District, El-Gharbia Governorate, Egypt to study the effects of grafting and some foliar applications (ascorbic acid, chitosan and salicylic acid) as well as their interactions on vegetative growth, leafs pigments, fruits yield and quality of two cucumber cultivars (Cucumis sativus L.).The experimental layout was split-split plot design in randomized complete blocks with three replicates. The main-plots were devoted to cucumber cultivars (King-53 and Sultan) and the sub-plots were allocated to the grafting treatments (grafting and non-grafting), while foliar application treatments (ascorbic acid, chitosan, salicylic acid and control treatment) were randomly distributed in the sub-sub plots. The most important results obtained from this investigation can be summarized as follows: 5.1. Effects of cucumber cultivars:As shown from the obtained results of this study, there were significant differences between the two studied cucumber cultivars (King-53 and Sultan) in vegetative growth parameters (stem length, foliage fresh weight/plant, leaves dry matter percentage, leaves fresh weight/plant, leaves number per plant, leaves area, nodes number on main stem and number of branches/plant), leaf pigments (chlorophylls a, b and total carotenoids), fruits yield (fruits number/plant, fruits fresh weight/plant, early and total yield ton/tunnel and ton/fed) and fruit quality (fruits dry matter percentage, total soluble solids ”TSS” percentage, vitamin C content ”ascorbic acid” and titratable acidity percentage) of cucumber in the two growing seasons. It is obvious that from obtained results of this study, the highest values of all the above-mentioned parameters were obtained from Sultan cultivar, while the lowest values resulted from King-53 cultivar in both seasons. 5.2. Effects of grafting:The effect of grafting treatments (grafting and non-grafting) of cucumber plants had significant effects on vegetative growth parameters (stem length, foliage fresh weight/plant, leaves dry matter percentage, leaves fresh weight/plant, leaves number per plant, leaves area, nodes number on main stem and number of branches/plant), leaf pigments (chlorophylls a, b and total carotenoids), fruits yield (fruits number/plant, fruits fresh weight/plant, early and total yield ton/tunnel and ton/fed) and fruit quality (fruits dry matter percentage, total soluble solids ”TSS” percentage, vitamin C content ”ascorbic acid” and titratable acidity percentage) in both seasons. Grafted plants recorded the maximum values of all studied parameters, while non-grafted plants recorded the lowest ones in both seasons. 5.3. Effects of foliar application treatments:The obtained results of this study show that the studied foliar application treatments, i.e., ascorbic acid at 200 ppm, chitosan at 250 ppm and salicylic acid at 200 ppm significantly affected vegetative growth parameters (stem length, foliage fresh weight/plant, leaves dry matter percentage, leaves fresh weight/plant, leaves number per plant, leaves area, nodes number on main stem and number of branches/plant), leaf pigments (chlorophylls a, b and total carotenoids), fruits yield (fruits number/plant, fruits fresh weight/plant, early and total yield ton/tunnel and ton/fed) and fruit quality (fruits dry matter percentage, total soluble solids ”TSS” percentage, vitamin C content ”ascorbic acid” and titratable acidity percentage) in both seasons. from obtained results it can be seen that, the highest values of the studied parameters formed from spraying cucumber plants with salicylic acid at 200 ppm followed by chitosan at 250 ppm in both seasons.5.4. Effects of interaction:With regard to the interactions among studied factors, great deals of them were statistically significant in most cases. As shown from obtained results, vegetative growth parameters (stem length, foliage fresh weight/plant, leaves dry matter percentage, leaves fresh weight/plant, leaves number per plant, leaves area, nodes number on main stem and number of branches/plant), leaf pigments (chlorophylls a, b and total carotenoids), fruits yield (fruits number/plant, fruits fresh weight/plant, early and total yield ton/tunnel and ton/fed) and fruit quality (fruits dry matter percentage, total soluble solids ”TSS” percentage, vitamin C content ”ascorbic acid” and titratable acidity percentage) significantly affected by the interaction among cultivars, grafting and foliar application treatments in both seasons.The highest values of all the above-mentioned traits resulted from grafting Sultan cultivars and spraying salicylic acid at 200 ppm in both seasons. The second best interaction treatment was grafting sultan cultivars and spraying chitosan at 250 ppm in both seasons. On the other hand, non-grafted King-53 cultivars in the absence of foliar substances produced the lowest values in both seasons. Conclusion:from the obtained results of this study, it is clear that grafting Sultan cucumber cultivar and spraying plants with salicylic acid at 200 ppm can be recommended in order to obtain the best plants performance (vegetative growth, leaf pigments, fruits yield and quality) under high plastic tunnels and the environmental conditions of Samannoud District, El-Gharbia Governorate, Egypt.