Wael M. Semida

• BSc, MSc, PhD
• PostDoc Position at Texas A&M University – Kingsville

Context: Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is an essential industrial crop valued for its sugar production, especially in regions with limited water resources. Due to its lower water demands, sugar beet is favored over sugarcane in Egypt. We hypothesized that foliar application of potassium silicate (K₂SiO₃) would enhance sugar beet’s physiological res...

This study investigated the combined effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (Nano-Zn) and moringa leaf extract (MLE) on squash plants grown under water stress conditions in saline soil during 2021–2022. The research compared full irrigation (100% ETc) with water deficit conditions (60% ETc). While water deficit negatively impacted plant growth, yield,...

Background Globally, salinity poses a threat to crop productivity by hindering plant growth and development via osmotic stress and ionic cytotoxicity. Plant extracts have lately been employed as exogenous adjuvants to improve endogenous plant defense mechanisms when grown under various environmental stresses, such as salinity. This study investigat...

Cadmium (Cd) is on the rise in the environment due to both anthropogenic activities and natural causes. It causes detrimental impacts on plant growth, yield, and quality, further posing a notable concern for human health. The objective was to uncover the positive consequences of the synergistic treatment of humic acid (HA) and antioxidants (Antiox)...

Background The combination of compost and biochar (CB) plays an important role in soil restoration and mitigation strategies against drought stress in plants. In the current study, the impact of CB was determined on the characteristics of saline calcareous soil and the productivity of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) plants. The field trial...

Due to climate change, expansion of salt-affected arable lands has emerged as a major threat to global food security and agricultural sustainability. Conventional crop breeding programs have proven insufficient for mitigating the risks of salt stress in soil and crop productivity. Research on improving soil health and crop tolerance to boost yield...

Excessive use of nitrogen (N) pollutes the environment and causes greenhouse gas emissions; however, the application of eco-friendly plant biostimulators (BSs) can overcome these issues. Therefore, this paper aimed to explore the role of diluted bee honey solution (DHS) in attenuating the adverse impacts of N toxicity on Phaseolus vulgaris growth,...

Background The combination of compost and biochar (CB) plays an important role in soil restoration and mitigation strategies against drought stress in plants. In this study, the impact of CB was determined on the characteristics of saline calcareous soil and medicinal productivity of fenugreek plants (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.). The field trials...

Water and salt stresses are among the most important global problems that limit the growth and production of several crops. The current study aims at the possibility of mitigating the effect of deficit irrigation of common bean plants growing in saline lands by foliar spraying with selenium via the assessment of growth, productivity, physiological,...

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruits contain high concentrations of phenolic compounds, particularly flavonoids and other micronutrients, which impact human health due to their potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer characteristics. In the present study, the effect of ethyl acetate, hydroethanol, hydromethanol, and aqueous extra...

Globally, salinity and drought are severe abiotic stresses that presently threaten vegetable production. This study investigates the potential exogenously-applied glutathione (GSH) to relieve water deficits on Phaseolus vulgaris plants cultivated in saline soil conditions (6.22 dS m ⁻¹ ) by evaluating agronomic, stability index of membrane, water s...

The application of effective microorganisms (EMs) and/or nitrogen (N) have a stimulating effect on plants against abiotic stress conditions. The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of the co-application of EMs and N on growth, physio-biochemical attributes, anatomical structures, nutrients acquisition, capsaicin, protein, and osmop...

Potassium is an essential macronutrient, where its availability regulates numerous biochemical, phenological, and physiological responses in plants. Synchronizing potassium supply with plant demand is a key factor to enhance growth and grain production of wheat grown in cadmium-contaminated saline soils. Field experiments were conducted in El Fayou...

Silymarin (Sm) and dopamine (DA) act synergistically as potential antioxidants, mediating many physiological and biochemical processes. As a first report, we investigated the synergistic effect of Sm and DA in mitigating cadmium stress in Phaseolus vulgaris plants. Three experiments were conducted simultaneously using 40 cm diameter pots to elucida...

Filter mud (FM) as an organic ameliorant might benefit in improving soil- and water-stressed crop productivity. However, the beneficial FM’s effects on soil and crop performance under deficit irrigation have not yet been fully comprehended. Our objective was to investigate the effect of FM under two irrigation regimes on soil quality, morpho-physio...

Among the essential micronutrients, zinc (Zn) affects vital functions in crop plants. The influences of foliar nourishing with certain Zn-containing forms on the growth, productivity, and physiology of carrot plants (cv. Fire wedge F1) and their nutritional contents when grown in Zn-deficient soil were examined in both 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 field...

PurposeIrrigation water rarity and its contamination with toxic metals are increasing gradually and have become imperious issues for the environment at personal and governmental levels. Silicon (Si) can increase plant tolerance to abiotic stressors and beneficially affect plant growth and productivity. The main purpose of the current study was to i...

Drought is one of the major threats to global food security. Biochar use in agriculture has received much attention and improving it through chemical modification offers a potential approach for enhancing crop productivity. There is still limited knowledge on how acidified biochar influences soil properties, and consequently its influences on the a...

Sustainability of rice production under flooding conditions has been challenged by water shortage and food demand. Applying higher nitrogen fertilization could be a practical solution to alleviate the deleterious effects of water stress on lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.) in semi-arid conditions. For this purpose, field experiments were conducted dur...

Natural extracts and biostimulants have recently been used to enhance growth and productivity of stressed plants. A pots trial was performed to verify the impacts of maize grain (MgE, 60 g L − 1) and/or propolis (PrmE, 40 g L − 1) extract foliar application (three times) on growth, physio-biochemical attributes, and productivity of faba bean plants...

Salinity is one of the most limiting abiotic stresses in agricultural productivity. Exogenously applied antioxidants successfully enabled salt-stressed plants to cope with stress. Two-season field experiments were conducted consecutively in 2016/17 and 2017/18 to study the effects of foliar applications of singular (ascorbate, AsA; proline, Pro; an...

The use of biochar has mostly moderate-positive to negative yield effects. However, integrating biochar with compost considerably enhanced biochar's positive effects on crops. This study aimed to investigate the potential effects of co-composted poultry litter biochar incorporation under deficit irrigation on eggplant's growth and productivity grow...

Selenium (Se) has been recently reported to play a crucial role in ameliorating the negative impact of abiotic stress, including salinity, on several plant species. Two field experiments (2016/17 and 2017/18) were carried out to investigate the possible effect of exogenous Se application at two levels (25, 50 mg L⁻¹) on growth, bulb yield, physio-b...

Exogenously applied micronutrients (M) have been reported to boost salinity tolerance and improve yield and quality. However, very little is known about the effect of M mixture foliar application under saline soil condition. Our objective was to investigate the influences of M mixture foliar application on morpho-physiological traits, yield, and qu...

Water shortage and salinity are major challenges for sustaining global food security. Using nutrients in the nano-scale formulation including zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NP) is a novel fertilization strategy for crops. In this study, two field-based trials were conducted during 2018 and 2019 to examine the influence of three ZnO NP concentrations...

Exogenous antioxidant applications enable salt-stressed plants to successfully cope with different environmental stresses. The objectives of this investigation were to study the effects of sequential treatments of proline (Pro), ascorbic acid (AsA), and/or glutathione (GSH) on 100 mM NaCl-stressed cucumber transplant’s physio-biochemical and growth...

Irrigation water scarcity has now become one of the main constraints that influences global crop production. The potential reduction in Egypt’s Nile share and the current degree of deterioration of surface and ground water will certainly increase the severity of the water shortage problem in Egypt. Raised bed planting systems under deficit irrigati...

Two field studies were conducted consecutively in the summer season of 2015 and 2016 to investigate the effect of different soil mulching materials (bare soil: BS as a control, white plastic: WP, black plastic: BP and rice straw: RS) on growth, productivity, and water-use efficiency (WUE) of potato under three levels of irrigation (I100=100%, I80=8...

Selenium (Se) has been extensively reported to alleviate negative effects of abiotic stresses, including drought on several economic plants. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of foliar application of Se with three levels (0 (Se0), 25 (Se25), and 50 (Se50) mM) on water status, photosynthetic efficiency, antioxidative defense apparatus...

The use of biostimulants, including plant extracts, enables plant species to noticeably lessen abiotic stress effects, including salinity. The aim of this study was to explore the potential impacts of two biostimulants; seed extracts of Foeniculum vulgare (FSE) and Ammi visnaga (ASE), foliarly applied at 2000 ppm, on growth, yield, physiological pa...

Microorganism technologies can provide a potential alternative to traditional methods of removing heavy metals to conserve agricultural soils. This study aimed to identify and characterize heavy metals-resistant bacteria (HM-RB) isolated from industry-affected soil and their desired impact as bioremediators of heavy metals-stressed spinach plants....

Edited by PN Hills A B S T R A C T Sustainable agriculture, characterized by farming profitably while minimizing damage to the environment, is not easy to practice. "Conventional agriculture" worldwide is commonly considered to involve numerous practices that have potential to damage the environment. "Sustainable agriculture" attempts to find a ran...

Salinity and drought are among the greatest threats hindering global food security. Over the last decade, biochar use in agriculture has received increasing attention and enhancing biochar through composting and chemical modification offers a potential strategy for improving soil productivity. However, there is limited knowledge on how residual sul...

This study was carried out during the winter seasons of 2016 and 2017 at private farm in Beni Suief Governorate, Egypt to investigate the integrative use of potassium levels (24, 48, 72 and 96 kg K 2 O fed ⁻¹ ) and soil mulching (rice straw and bare soil) on growth and productivity of garlic under three levels of surface irrigation (60, 80 and 100...

The aim of this trial was to investigate the pre-harvest foliar application of calcium chloride and potassium thiosulfate each at 0.0, 0.2 and 0.4 % on some quality of tomato fruit (hybrid 65010) during cold storage. The experimental layout of cold storage experiments was a split-split-plot based on Randomized Complete Blocks design with three repl...

Selecting the appropriate land use is one of the most important steps toward achieving sustainable development. The main objective of this research is to develop a new method to overcome the contradiction occurring when using the conventional methods to evaluate land suitability for newly reclaimed areas. A spatial model was developed to assess lan...

This study was carried out during the winter seasons of 2016 and 2017 at private farm in Beni Suief Governorate, Egypt to investigate the integrative use of potassium levels (24, 48, 72 and 96 kg K 2 O fed ⁻¹ ) and soil mulching (rice straw and bare soil) on growth and productivity of garlic under three levels of surface irrigation (60, 80 and 100...

The aim of this trial was to investigate the pre-harvest foliar application of calcium chloride and potassium thiosulfate each at 0.0, 0.2 and 0.4 % on some quality of tomato fruit (hybrid 65010) during cold storage. The experimental layout of cold storage experiments was a split-split-plot based on Randomized Complete Blocks design with three repl...

Plant biostimulants are an emerging trend of crop management products which can enhance nutrient uptake, plant growth and productivity under various abiotic stresses. The ability of diluted bee-honey extract (DHE) to enhance the tolerance of onion plants to salinity stress has been investigated. Two-season field experiments were consecutively condu...

Plants face a lot of abiotic stresses, during their life cycle, including salinity that greatly influences their growth and entire metabolism. Osmoprotectants have to enable plant to beat such stress. Two-season field experiments were conducted consecutively in 2015/16 and 2016/17 to study the effect of glycine betaine (GB) foliar application at th...

Agriculture has been adversely affected by low water availability due to climate change, creating abiotic stress conditions for economically important crops such as cucumber. Two on-field seasons study (summer and fall) were conducted consecutively in 2016/17 to investigate the effect of deficit drip irrigation at three levels (DI0% = 100%, DI20% =...

Plants face a lot of abiotic stresses, during their life cycle, including salinity that greatly influences their growth and entire metabolism. Osmoprotectants have to enable plant to beat such stress. Two-season field experiments were conducted consecutively in 2015/16 and 2016/17 to study the effect of glycine betaine (GB) foliar application at th...

During its life cycle, plant has to cope with a number of abiotic stresses including cadmium stress. Cadmium (Cd) is highly toxic to plant and greatly influences its growth and entire metabolism. Antioxidants have to enable plant to beat such stresses. Therefore, effects of ascorbate (AsA), proline (Pro) and glutathione (GSH) applied, as seed soaki...

Natural plant growth biostimulants are intensively used nowadays for plant growing in normal and adverse conditions. Severely affected by salt and drought stresses, squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) is an important vegetable crop that highly ranked in economic importance worldwide. The current study aimed to evaluate whether leaf extract of Moringa oleife...

Two field experiments were conducted using two varieties (i.e., Giza 40 and Giza 429) of Vicia faba L. to evaluate the effect of 1.0 mM salicylic acid (SA) foliar application on plant tolerance to reclaimed-saline soil conditions. Growth, physiological attributes and yields of water-sprayed plants (controls) grown under reclaimed-saline soil condit...

Field-applied salicylic acid (SA) could provide a potential protection against drought stress in onion large-scale production. Two-season field experiments were consecutively conducted in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 to study the effect of 1 and 2 mM SA on growth, yield, plant water relations, chlorophyll a fluorescence, osmoprotectants and water use ef...

As one of the active oxygen species that is widely generated in many biological systems and mediates various physiological and biochemical processes in plants, exogenous hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) in very low concentrations improves salt-tolerance in some plant species. Therefore, two field experiments were conducted in 2013/14 and 2014/15 to stud...

PurposeThe effect of a novel organo-mineral fertilizer (OMF) compost, as a partial alternative to mineral fertilizers, on soil characteristics, growth, physio-biochemical attributes, Cd2+ and NO3− concentrations, and yields of Phaseolus vulgaris L. plants grown under salt stress was investigated. Methods Six organic and mineral materials were well...

Salicylic acid (SA) controls plant growth and induces water deficit tolerance in plants. Summer and fall season experiments were conducted in 2013 to study the effect of 1 mM SA on growth, anatomy, yield, chlorophyll fluorescence, osmoprotectants and water use efficiency (WUE) of squash plants under three levels of irrigation (I100 = 100%, I80 = 80...

α-Tocopherol (αTOC) is a vitamin and antioxidant compound that plays a crucial role in amelioration of biotic and abiotic stresses. It has been found that it improves salt-tolerance in some plant species. Two field experiments were conducted in 2013/14 and 2014/15 to evaluate the potential effects of foliar applications with 0.5 and 1.0 mM αTOC on...

Field studies were conducted for two consecutive seasons (summer and fall) under sub-temperate climatic conditions at southwest of Cairo, Egypt (29° 35' N 30° 23' E) in saline soil (ECe 12.6 dS m-1) to investigate the effect of different mulches (without mulch, WM as a control, farmyard manure: FYM, rice straw: RSM and white polyethylene: PM) on so...

field studies were conducted for two consecutive seasons (summer and fall) under sub-temperate climatic conditions at southwest of Cairo, Egypt (29◦35�N 30◦23�E) in saline soil (ECe 12.6 dS m−1) to investigate the effect of different mulches (without mulch, WM as a control, farmyard manure: FYM, rice straw: RSM and white polyethylene: PM) on soil s...

A two-season pot experiment was conducted on Phaseolus vulgaris L. plants to evaluate their response to 1.0 mM salicylic acid (SA) in a growing medium contaminated with 0.25 or 0.50 mM Cd2+ ions. Plants were sampled for growth measurements and chemical analyses 45 d after sowing, and to measure the yield of beans at the end of each experiment. Expo...

tSupplying organo mineral fertilizer [a 2:10:1 (w/w/w) mixture of sulfur, compost and potassium humate]under deficit irrigation conditions could be a practical solution to compensate the negative effect of waterstress on cucumber crop. For this purpose, two consecutive field experiments (summer and fall sea-sons) were conducted during 2014. Three o...

This study was planned to investigate the effect of soil application with an organo-mineral fertilizer [OMF; a 5:2:1 (w/w/w) mixture of green waste compost, elemental sulphur (S) and humic acid (HA), respectively] on physical and chemical characteristics of a reclaimed saline calcareous soil (ECe = 6.47 dS m−1 and CaCO3 = 15.63%). In addition, grow...

This study was planned to investigate the effect of soil application with an organo-mineral fertilizer [OMF; a 5:2:1 (w/w/w) mixture of green waste compost, elemental sulphur (S) and humic acid (HA), respectively] on physical and chemical characteristics of a reclaimed saline calcareous soil (ECe = 6.47 dS m −1 and CaCO3 = 15.63%). In addition, gro...

A successive summer and fall experiments were conducted to study the effect of deficit irrigation grow-ing seasons on the squash water status, total fruit yield and water use efficiency (WUE) in saline soil (ECe12.6 dS m−1). Three treatment levels of actual evapotranspiration (ETc) were tested in each season. Theirrigations treatments were: (1) con...

Soil application of potassium humate at 100 kg fed-1 or spraying ascorbic acid at 100 and/or 200 mg L-1 , significantly, reflected positive influences on canopy dry weight and leaf area plant-1. Number and weight of green pods plant-1 , total green pods yield fed-1 , number of dry pods plant-1 , weight of 100 dry seeds, dry seeds yield plant-1 and...

The effect of foliar-applied α-tocopherol (αTOC) on salt tolerance in two varieties of faba beans (i.e., Giza 40 and Giza 429) grown under saline soil conditions was investigated. Salinity stress caused a significant reduction in growth traits, physiological attributes, yields and anatomy of the two faba bean varieties. αTOC-treated plants, grown u...

The effects of soaking common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) seeds in 5.0 μM 24-epibrassinolide (EBL) or in 1.0 mM salicylic acid (SA) on seed germination and seedling growth, drought tolerance, osmoprotectant molecule concentrations, and anti-oxidant systems when grown under 100 mM NaCl stress were investigated. EBL or SA alleviated the adverse effe...

A novel organo-mineral fertilizer [a 5:2:1 (w/w/w) mixture of green waste compost, elemental sulphur (S) and humic acid (HA), respectively] was used as a soil amendment to study its effect on the growth, chlorophyll contents, chlorophyll fluorescence, and leaf nutrient status of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) grown in reclaimed saline calcareous s...

Photoselective plastic films with thermic properties are now available so that greenhouses clad with such plastics exhibit a higher degree of “Greenhouse Effect” with a consequent increase in night time temperature. In this study, we investigate the potential benefits of a range of thermic plastic films used as greenhouse cover materials on the veg...

The AgroFood Company, which currently exports fresh chili peppers to European clients, desires to expand the product mix offered. The company, as it expands its production of fresh peppers for export, has an increasing supply of grade 2 peppers that are unmarketable in Egypt. However, an attractive market for processed frozen chili peppers exists i...