Abstract: Cowpea plants (Vigna sinensis L.) variety " Cream 7" were grown in pots.

T he foliage of the plants were sprayed twice at 70 and 80 days from sowing with Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) solutions of (25, 50 and 100 mg/L) and the control plants were sprayed with distilled water. IAA treatments at the rate of 25 and 50 mg/L increased number of leaves, shoot dry weight and number of produced flowers per plant. Meanwhile 50 and 100 mg IAA significantly decreased the number of flowers abscised from cowpea plant. IAA at 25 and 50 mg/L significantly increased number and weight of pods and seeds per plant. Endogenous IAA, gibberellins and cytokinins increased during flowering and at abscission time, however, ABA content was decreased by all applied concentrations of IAA. Further responses of cowpea plants to IAA applications are discussed. INTRODUCTION Cowpea plant is grown largely in Egypt and is generally considered to be less sensitive to salinity than peas or bean [1 ]. Cowpea shares other legume crops the problem of flower abscission. Abscission is controlled by external variables such as environmental stresses as indicated by Katterman [2 ] and internal variables such as endogenous plant hormones [3 ,4 ] . Auxins tend to decrease abscission. Several investigators reported that auxins retard abscission of different organs [5 ,6 ] . Al-Desuqey, et al.,[7 ] reported that IAA, gibberellic acid or kinetin at different concentrations stimulated the growth vigor (root length, root fresh and dry weight, shoot length, shoot fresh and dry weights and leaf area production) of cowpea throughout the growth periods. Also, Sinsiri,

N. and Laohasiriwong, [8 ] working on cowpea using different rates of IAA and found that root length, and number of both roots and root hairs were highly affected by IAA treatments and the best IAA level was found with level 3 (500 mg/litre). Meanwhile, foliar application of indole acetic acid (IAA) at three concentrations (12.5, 25 and 50 ppm) induced increments of the plant height, fresh and dry weights, number of branches and number of leaves per plant as well as yield components (pods per plant, seeds per pod, weight of pod, weight of seeds per plant and weight of seeds/feddan) [9 ]. Several investigators also reported an increase in yield of different plants by application of auxins [1 0 ,1 1 ]. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of IAA application on flower abscission of cowpea with special reference to the role of endogenous hormones and to asses the reflection of such treatments on yield.