EFFECT OF STARTER SOLUTIONS IN SOIL AND FOLIAR SPRAY WITH SOME STIMULANTS ON GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY OF CHINESE CABBAGE | ||||
Journal of Plant Production | ||||
Article 3, Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2014, Page 21-40 PDF (612.84 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/jpp.2014.53311 | ||||
View on SCiNiTO | ||||
Authors | ||||
S. T. El-Afifi1; M. M. Zaghloul1; M. B. I. El- Sawy2; A. M. A. Hashim3 | ||||
1Dept. of.Veg. and Ornamental, Fac. Agric. Mansoura Univ., Egypt. | ||||
2Hort. Dept., Fac. Agric., Kafrelsheikh Univ., Egypt. | ||||
3Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza , Egypt. | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Two field experiments were carried out at a Farm in El-Shahyna Village Kafrelsheikh Governorate (North Delta), Egypt, during the two successive winter seasons of 2012 and 2013 to study the effect of starter solutions of NPK fertilizers in soil and foliar application of some stimulants (amino acids and seaweed extract) as well as their interactions on growth and yield of Chinese cabbage plants (Brassica rapa L. subsp. pekinensis) cv. (Manoko). Four starter fertilizers treatments included three sources of N, i.e., ammonium sulfate (20.5 % N), ammonium nitrate (33.5 %) and urea (46%) as well as without starter solution and two sources of stimulants. The experiments were carried out in a split-plot with three replications.The results indicated that, starter solutions treatments resulted in highly significant increases in stem length, stem diameter, whole stem weight, number of total leaves/ plant and fresh weights of outer leaves (inedible), inner leaves (edible) , total leaves / plant and weights of total yield (whole head) and marketable yield (edible head) compared with the control treatment (without starter solution) in both seasons. The increase (%) in weights of total and marketable yield resulted from using starter solution No. 1 (containing Ammonium Sulfate), No. 2 (containing ammonium nitrate) and No. 3 (containing urea) over the control( without starter solution) were (51.8 and 67.6(%) , 59.1 and 75.6(%) , 55.7 and 75.6(%) (as av. two seasons), respectively.Amino acid and seaweed extract treatments caused highly significant increases in stem diameter, whole stem weight, number of total leaves/ plant, weights of outer leaves (inedible), inner leaves (edible) and total leaves/ plant , fresh weights of total yield (whole head) and marketable yield (edible head) compared to the control (unsprayed) treatment in both seasons. Such increases were highly significant in the first season for leaf area / plant and leaf area index (LAI) . Moreover, they had a significant increase in stem length in both seasons such increase were significant in the second one for leaf area /plant and leaf area index(LAI). The increase (%) in weights of total and marketable yield resulted from foliar spray with amino acid and seaweed extract over no spray were 43.3 and 43.0(%), 14.8 and 14.3(%) (as av. two seasons), respectively. The highest values of previous characteristics were recorded when Chinese cabbage plants sprayed with amino acid followed by seaweed extract compared with unsprayed plants which had the lowest values in both seasons.The combined interaction between starter solutions and foliar spray with some stimulants had no significant effect on stem characteristics, leaves characteristics and weights of total and marketable yield in both seasons. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Chinese cabbage; starter solutions; NPK fertilizers; biostimulants; amino acid; seaweed extract; foliar spray | ||||
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