IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY, NPK UPTAKE AND WATER USE EFFICIENCY OF SNAP BEAN IN SANDY SOIL

The responses of dry mass accumulation, NPK uptake, water use efficiency, and green pods yield characters of snap bean plants to biofertilizer Halex-2 under four varying humic acid (HA) rates; 0 (HA(0)), 0.3 (HA(1)), 0.6 (HA(2)) and 1.2 (HA(3)) ton ha(-1), were studied. Two field experiments were conducted, during the season of 2011 and 2012, at the Agricultural Experiment Stations, Hada-Alsham, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Increasing HA rate up to 1.0 t ha(-1) (HA(2)) led to significant increments in the dry mass accumulation, uptake of N, P and K, green pods yield, the number of pods and water use efficiency characters. Moreover, the results showed that inoculation of snap bean seeds by biofertilizer Halex-2 significantly increased all studied parameters of snap bean plants. Generally, the combination treatment of 1.0 t HA ha(-1) + Halex-2 was the most beneficial treatment which gave significantly higher mean value for total green pods yield ha(-1), number of pods plant(-1) and water use efficiency.