Agro-Ecological and Varietal Effects on The Infestation of Two Types of Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on Fennel Fruits and Essential Oil Under Middle and Upper Egypt Conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

The medicinal and aromatic plants in Egypt became vital economic crops for the local and export market. One of these crops is the Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.), it is an important herbaceous plant. The fennel aphids, Hyadaphis foeniculi (Passerini) and cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) cause reductions on the yield components and amount of essential oil in the fennel fruits. This study was conducted to investigate the aphids infestation on two fennel varieties (Foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare (Local) and Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum (Holland) cultivated in two agro-ecological zones in Middle and Upper Egypt during 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. Depend on the obtained results, there were significant effects of different locations on the infestation level by fennel aphids, while there was no significant interaction between seasons. This results on susceptibility degrees of fennel varieties showed that none of the tested varieties was found completely free from aphid attack. At Al-Fayoum, the Local and Holland were exhibited low resistance in the first season, whereas, both varieties were susceptible (S) in the second season. However, at Luxor, Local var. was low resistance (LR) and susceptible (S) in the first and second seasons respectively. While Holland var. was susceptible (S) in both seasons. The different treatments were similar in both seasons and highly significant compared to untreated plants. The efficient treatments are Tracer and Saif oil followed by KZ Oil + Potassium Soap. It is clear from the results that the local cultivar preferred to cultivate in Luxor, where the best vegetative growth, as well as the highest yield of fruits and the highest productivity of essential oil percentage and the highest oil yield, provided the treatment of plants with Tracer or Saif oil, where they have a strong impact on aphid resistance, which reflected on the production of local fennel type increased. On the other hand, Holland variety, the best yield was given in Al-Fayoum in terms of vegetative growth, fruit yield and oil yield, provided that the plants were treated with Tracer or Saif oil, which was efficient on the reduction the aphid infestation, leading to increased productivity. Our investigation suggested that the agro-ecological region have a high concern in widespread of the medicinal and aromatic plant for high production and quality of the essential oil especially the foreign fennel verities.

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