RESPONSE OF WILLIAMS BANANA PLANTS TO UREA FOLIAR SPRAYS | ||||
| Journal of Plant Production | ||||
| Article 20, Volume 25, Issue 4, April 2000, Page 2265-2283 PDF (1.03 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jpp.2000.258804 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| M. W. Taha,; E. M. El-Azab; S. M. El-Shazly; S. M. Abdel-Wahed | ||||
| Pomology Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The present investigation was carried out during 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 growing seasons on Williams banana plants. All combinations of two, four and six foliar sprays of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4% urea (i.e. 15 treatments) were used in this experiment. The results revealed that, spraying banana plants with different urea concentrations increased the vegetative growth parameters (pseudostem height, girth, height/girth ratio and number of green leaves) as compared with the control plants (0% urea) in both seasons. The concentration of 2% urea gave the highest pseudostem height, girth and number of green leaves. Meanwhile, it gave the lowest pseudostem height/girth ratio. Increasing the number of urea sprays, generally, increased the growth of banana plants. Increasing the concentration of urea progressively delayed fruit maturity. Likewise, increasing the number of urea sprays significantly delayed maturity in the second season, whereas, fruit maturity was not greatly affected in the first season. The urea application showed a positive effect on yield (as bunch weight), stalk length, and number of hands and fingers per bunch. The maximum increase was associated with the 2% urea. Moreover, increasing the number of urea sprays slightly increased bunch weight and markedly increased other bunch parameters. The application of urea, in general, increased fingers length, weight and girth, pulp and peel weights, pulp/peel ratio, fruit TSS and acidity percentages. The effect was more pronounced with urea at 2%. Increasing urea concentration increased leaf N, K, Mg, Ca and Zn contents, Meanwhile, P, Na, Fe, Mn and Cu were not significantly affected. On the other hand, the number of urea sprays did not show a clear effect. | ||||
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