SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE VALUE OF HYDROPONIC SPROUTED BARLEY FOR GREEN FODDER

Abstract

Hydroponic sprouted barley is recently become an applied approach to provide a green fodder crop, particularly in arid and semiarid region such as Egypt. The crop is produced from germinating seeds under controlled growing conditions for a short period. Laboratory experiments have been performed to determine the effect of some seed soaking treatments and germination temperature on the quantity and quality of green fodder crop. Various stimulants i.e. gibberellin solution and yeast extract were used .Seed germination was made at different temperatures. The results indicated that seed soaked in gibberellin solution (12 ppm) and yeast extract (3 g/l) and germination temperature at 35°C exceeded other seed treatments as to the most parameters of the quantity and quality of green fodder crop. The simple correlation coefficients of seed germination (%), germination speed index, seedling length and seedling fresh weight towards green fodder yield were positive and significant (0.939, 0.897, 0.892 and 0.928), respectively. The stepwise regression analysis revealed that the relative contribution for seed germination (%), seedling length and seedling fresh weight towards green fodder yield was 83.7%. The results of chemical analyses of green fodder crop such as dry matter (%), ash (%), organic matter (%), crude protein (%), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (%), acid detergent fiber (%) (ADF), ether extract (%) (EE) and non-fiber carbohydrate (%) (NCF) were consisted with those of germination temperature and seedling characters. These findings suggested that soaking barley seed in gibberellin solution (12 ppm) and yeast extract (3 g/l) as a good ,simple and cheap treatment to get high quality and maximize sprouted fodder yield under different temperatures