EFFECT OF SOIL TYPE AND ORGANIC FARMING ON JOJOBA GROWTH

The objective of this study is to explore the best types of soil and the most effective organic fertilization for the growth of Simmondsia chinensis (link) Schneider in northeast Africa. We investigated the cultivation of Jojoba in different soil types and organic fertilization in Libya. Our goal is to demonstrate the impact of different soil types and foliar humic acid and yeast extracts on the growth of Jojoba. Our experiments were conducted during the 2016/17 season. They were designed as randomized complete blocks with three replications to consider three major factors of interest. The first factor involved soil types, which consisted of five treatments, namely, i) sand soil, ii) clay soil, iii) calcareous soil, iv) silt soil (2 sand: 1 clay), and v) loam soil (1 sand: 1 clay). All soil sources were from sites in Tocra, Shat-Al-Badin, and Al-Baida in Libya. The second factor deals with organic fertilization, which consisted of four treatments, namely, i) controlled water (distilled water), ii) humic acid water (10 ml/l), iii) bread yeast water (10 g/l), and iv) humic acid (10 ml/l) plus bread yeast (10 g/l) water. We found that the weight of the dry shoot increased significantly at P≤0.01 to reach 1.60 and 1.41 g/plant when humic acid plus yeast and when yeast were added, respectively. The results of our work indicate the most favorable soil type and the most effective organic fertilization technique for the growth of Jojoba, namely, limestone soils with humic acid plus yeast for fertilization.