Evaluation of the impact of water stress and irrigation on carob tree two year seedlings in Northeast of Morocco Abdelaziz El Asri 1 , Fatima Ait Aguil 1 , Allal Douira 1 *, Ahmed Douaik 2 , Amina Ouazzani Touhami 1 1 Botanic and Plant Protection Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, University Ibn Tofail, KØnitra, (MOROCCO) 2 Research Unit on Environment and Conservation of Natural Resources, National Institute of Agricultural Research, Rabat, (MOROCCO) E-mail : douiraallal@hotmail.com Carob tree; Water stress; Irrigation; Growth; Height; Mortality. KEYWORDS ABSTRACT The carob tree planting was done with two year seedlings. The effect of irrigation on the annual growth of the carob tree was similar in parts conducted in irrigated or kept dry. After three years of culture, seedlings reached a height of 55.7 – 15.5 cm in the irrigated part against 53.4 – 22.4 cm in the dry part. The survival rate was 93% under irrigation and 86% in the dry part. These two results are more superior to those obtained in the plantations of the Forestry Administration whose levels during the 2011- 2012 year, did not exceed 30% [15] .  2014 Trade Science Inc. - INDIA INTRODUCTION The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is a sclerophyllous legume belonging to the subfamily of Caesalpiniaceae. It is present mainly in the Mediterra- nean in marginalized and calcareous soils [18] . Pods and seeds are mainly used in food, cosmetics and pharma- ceuticals [5,27] . Morocco is the fourth producer country of carob in the world contributing to 8% of world pro- duction. Although presented as having a high resistance to hot and cold bioclimates, to water stress compared to other Mediterranean species [21,22] , and to salt stress [9,10] , it is a difficult manageable species in refor- estation areas. The balance sheets of foresters suggest very significant failures. The success rate of carob tree plantations does not exceed 30% in the best cases, between 10 and 30% overall. Our work therefore plans to test the effect of irrigation on the annual growth of the carob tree whose seed used in planting had an age of two years. Planting was followed for three years (2010-2013). MATERIELS AND METHODS Plant materiel and study area Carob tree two year seedlings were raised in the Zegangane forest nursery in polythene bags of dimen- sions 25 cm height, 12 cm section, and 60 microns thick. The mixture of breeding substrate is composed of 55% loam, 15% from the forest soil and 30% sand. The study was conducted in an experimental plot of average alti- tude of 115 m and located in the region of Nador (Northeast Morocco). Precipitation and maximum and minimum temperatures of the study area are reported in TABLE 1. Volume 9 Issue 4 BioSciences Research & Reviews in BioSciences RRBS, 9(4), 2014 [137-141] ISSN : 0974 - 7532 Regular Paper