The experiments were carried out during 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 seasons, at
AL- Bousialy site, Behiera governorate, on broccoli plants Decathlon hybrid F1. This
work aimed to study the effect of three water regimes (high, medium and low
irrigation levels using class A pan evaporation) on vegetative growth, early and total
yield. The high irrigation level (120 % class A pan) gave the highest plant height,
number of leaves per plant, stem diameter, fresh and dry weights of plants. The lowest
values were recorded with low irrigation level (80 % class A pan). High and medium
(100 % class A pan) irrigation levels resulted in the highest total yield as well as water
use efficiency. Total chlorophyll content, ascorbic acid and TSS contents in main
head were not affected by different irrigation levels. Crop coefficient (Kc) was
calculated using volumetric lysimeters during different growth stages to be involved
under the same experimental conditions.
Key words: Broccoli, Irrigation regimes, Class A pan, Crop coefficient
(Kc), Water use efficiency, Lysimeters.

This study was conducted in order to investigate the impact of planting dates and plant density on growth and yield of Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) in field of EL-Bossily Site, El-Behara Governorate, during the two successive seasons of 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. A split plot experiment was designed with five planting dates as main level and three planting densities as sub-main. Seeds of Royal Marvel F1 were sown in the nursery on five sowing dates at 20 days interval starting from July 25th and seedlings were transplanted in the field after 40 days for each sowing date starting from Sep. 5th in both seasons. The three planting densities were 4.44 (High), 2.67 (Medium) and 1.9 plant/m2 (Low). The results showed that the early three planting dates resulted in longer stalks, higher number of leaves, higher number of sprouts per plant, larger sprout size, higher sprout weight and a higher high-quality yield compared to the latest two planting dates. Plant density, however, showed no significant effect on the yield of sprout diameter >30mm, but the low planting density increased the sprout size. Concerning the interaction, planting on Oct. 5th with the high density gave the highest marketable yield of 3.4 and 3.2 kg/m2 in the two seasons, respectively, while the low density and latest planting date (Nov. 15th) gave the lowest yield of 1.46 and 1.49 kg/m2 in both seasons, respectively.

This work was carried out for evaluating the effect of some packages on the keeping quality of broccoli heads, Brassica oleracea var. italica cv. Tokyo Dome F1 hybrid during storage. Two types of packages were examined, namely: cardboard carton boxes of three different sizes (302010, 40309 and 453014 cm), and non perforated and perforated polyethylene bags at the size of 45x30 cm, where the ventilation holes percentage of perforated bags were 0.15, 0.30 and 0.45%. The evaluation of the various packages proved that large boxes (45  30 14 cm) and non-perforated polyethylene bags were the promising ones in minimizing the heads loss in weight and the unmarketable percentage. Moreover, all packages retained more T.S.S., ascorbic acid, total chlorophyll and total sugars as compared to the control treatment.

Two experiments were conducted to find out the effect of 2cultivars, 3
densities and 7 planting dates on the growth and yield of Chinese cabbage
in the field of EL-Bossaily Protected Cultivation Unit, EL-Bahaira
Governorate, Egypt in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 seasons. The cultivars
Chinese Express and Tropical Delight were each raised from 7 sowing
dates (5, 20 July; 5, 20 August; 5, 20 September and 5 October) and
planted in the field on 10, 25 August; 10, 25 September; 10, 25 October
and 15 November, respectively. Three different planting densities were
compared for each cultivar, which were 20000 (70×30 cm2), 15000
(70×40 cm2) and 12000 (70×50 cm2) plants/Feddan. Plant population had
a significant effect on marketable yield. Head weight decreased as plant
population increased. The most suitable density for this crop was 20000
plants/Feddan. This density led to increase the marketable yield and
decrease the percentage of unmarketable heads. The influence of the
planting date on yield was mainly related to the duration of the growing
period. However, under the condition of our experiments September 10th,
25th and October 10th and 25th were the most appropriate dates for
planting Chinese cabbage. Planting in these dates increased the length,
width, weight and yield and gave rise to minimum values of total defects..
There was a significant interaction between variety, plant density and
planting date. The most satisfactory result was observed on China
Express at spacing of 70×30 cm2 and planting date of September 25th
which gave the highest marketable yield, while the lowest value was
obtained on Tropical Delight spaced at 70×50 cm2 and planted in
November 15th.

Two field experiments were carried out in El-Bossaily Protected
Cultivations Unit, El-Behaire Governorate, Egypt in 2002 and 2003
seasons to study the response of some Chinese cabbage (Brassica
campestris var. pekinensis) cultivars, i.e. China Queen, China Express
and Tropical Delight to leaf-tying and shading as comparmed to the
control (unshaded) in summer season. Data showed that leaf-tying
significantly increased the head weight of both "China Queen and China
Express" cultivars, but had a great positive effect on the heat-tolerant
"Topical Delight". Yield increases were due to higher heading rate
(number of plants with heads) and the development of heavier heads.
Polyethylene net black covers had a positive effect on yield of all
cultivars as compared to the unshaded (control). Vitamin C, total
caroteniods and total sugars were increased due to leaf-tying and shading
in all cultivars. An opposite trend was recorded for chlorophyll content as
the lowest resulted from shaded head and the highest from the unshaded
plants in the three cultivars. On the other hand, leaf-tying treatment
increased total chlorophyll than the control heads in all cultivars.
INTRODUCTION

This study was conducted in order to investigate the impact of planting dates and
plant density on growth and yield of Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) in
field of EL-Bossily Site, El-Behara Governorate, during the two successive seasons of 2002-
2003 and 2003-2004. A split plot experiment was designed with five planting dates as main
level and three planting densities as sub-main. Seeds of Royal Marvel F1 were sown in the
nursery on five sowing dates at 20 days interval starting from July 25th and seedlings were
transplanted in the field after 40 days for each sowing date starting from Sep. 5th in both
seasons. The three planting densities were 4.44 (High), 2.67 (Medium) and 1.9 plant/m2
(Low). The results showed that the early three planting dates resulted in longer stalks, higher
number of leaves, higher number of sprouts per plant, larger sprout size, higher sprout weight
and a higher high-quality yield compared to the latest two planting dates. Plant density,
however, showed no significant effect on the yield of sprout diameter >30mm, but the low
planting density increased the sprout size. Concerning the interaction, planting on Oct. 5th
with the high density gave the highest marketable yield of 3.4 and 3.2 kg/m2 in the two
seasons, respectively, while the low density and latest planting date (Nov. 15th) gave the
lowest yield of 1.46 and 1.49 kg/m2 in both seasons, respectively.

Sweet corn is one of the most perishable vegetables, as it has a
very high respiration rate, thus, minimum safe low temperature (0oC) and
high relative humidity control are essential to maximum shelf-life and to
minimize quality loss. In addition, film wraps can be beneficial in
maintains high relative humidity and extending the storage life.
The present investigation is undertaken to study the effect of
shrink-wrapping and refrigeration (0oC and 90± 5%RH) on quality
changes of sweet corn ears during storage. Quality changes of sweet corn
were monitored during storage at 0OC, unwrapped or wrapped in shrink
Film. Film wrapping maintained freshness, reduced weight loss and
decay better than lack of unwrapping. Wrapping in shrink film resulted in
lower O2 and higher Co2 concentrations within packages. Wrapping in
shrink film maintained total soluble solids and total sugars than
unwrapping.