Department of Arid Land Agriculture, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment & Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80208, Jeddah: 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Among the agronomic practices, planting time and nitrogen fertilization are the prime factors that limit crop production to its full extent. Field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station of King Abdul Aziz University at Hada Al-Sham during 2012 and 2013 seasons to investigate the effect of sowing date (November 05, November 20 and December 05) and nitrogen rates (0,100 and 200 kgha-1) on growth and yield of barley. Statistical analysis of gained data presented significant effect of nitrogen levels on barley growth and yield parameters. November 20plantation outcompeted the rest of the planting times and produced superior plant height, 1000 grain weight, plant dry biomass, grain weight and chaff weight while November 05 produced higher number of spikelets spike-1 and harvest index compared to November20 and December 05plantation. The highest level of nitrogen fertilizer (200 kgha-1 leads to an increase in plant height, number of spikesm-2, spike weight, spike length, number of spikeletsspike-1and 1000 grain weight. Delay in plating time such as December 05reduced vegetative and reproductive growth period thus results in lower biological and grain yield, number of spikesm-2, number of spikeletsspike-1, harvest index, 1000 grain weight, nitrogen and protein content. Significant interaction of sowing dates × nitrogen fertilization were also recorded for several studied traits. Barley growth and yield contributors were positively correlated to grain nitrogen and protein content.