A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Experimental and Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt in the two summer successive seasons 2008 and 2009. The present work aims to study the response of snap bean to different rates of compost and time of application in comparison with two different sources of inorganic fertilizers. The experiment included 8 treatments, the recommended mineral fertilizer (MF) as a control, Natural fertilizer (NF), i.e. 4, 6 and 8 tons of compost as organic sources were applied once through soil preparation (O). These treatments were applied at two equal splits at soil preparation and 30 days after sowing (S). The same rate of (N: P: K, 50:45:60 kg/ fed) was applied either in MF or NF treatment. The N source in both treatments was ammonium sulfate, super phosphate (P) and potassium sulfate (K) in MF treatment and phosphate rock (P) and natural potassium (K) in NF treatment. Results showed that MF, NF, 4 tons compost O and S treatments produced significantly taller plants in combined over seasons.

Two successive winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 were conducted under sandy soil conditions to study the effect of spraying with 12 commercial compounds on inflorescences diameter, flower stalk length, number of seed stem /plant, weight of 1000 seed, germination percentage, seed yield, moisture content, catalase, peroxidase activity and malondialdehyde content of onion seeds. The plants sprayed with union Zn, union Mn, union feer, shams k, elga 600, boron, and amino x had the highest vegetative growth parameter, germination percentage and enzyme activity. The plants sprayed with union Zn, union feer, shams K, Magnesium, caboron, hummer and amino X had the highest seed yield / feddan. This study showed that seeds germination percentage and enzyme activity, which was closely associated with longevity of seeds, could be enhanced significantly by improving storage conditions.