OPTIMIZING POTATO PRODUCTION WITH HYDROGEL TREATMENT AND IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT

Increasing global food demand due to increasing populations led to an increase in water requirements. The limited water resources and insufficient water supply for consumer for irrigation are important facing Egypt (governorate, researchers, and farmers). Water deficiency is a main environmental constraint that jeopardizes production of the crops in the world. Egypt ranks 107 of 181 countries of the world concerning. This study investigated the effect of irrigation regimes (IR) irrigation every 10 days and irrigation every 20 days and treating clay soil with three concentrations (HG=0.0, HG=2.5 and HG=5.0 per fed.) as a soil additive on plant growth, water use efficiency, productivity, and tuber quality of potato plant c.v. Lady Balfour. The experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of the Horticulture Department at Minia University's Faculty of Agriculture over two consecutive fall seasons (2018/2019 and 2019/2020). Soil analysis was performed, and the experiment was set up in split plots using a complete randomized block design with four replications (IR in the main plot and HG treatments in sub plot). The experiment demonstrated that irrigation regime had a significant effect on plant growth parameters i.e., plant height, plant fresh and dry weights. The first regime (irrigation every 10 days) shows the highest values of plant growth compared to the second regime. Hydrogel treatment also had a