Effect of agricultural media, bio-fertilizers, and spraying with potassium in the growth of gladiolus plant

Abstract EN

This experiment was conducted in the greenhouse belonging to one of the private nurseries located near the Federal Court of Babylon for the spring season of (2017), for studying the effect of three Culture Medias of (loamy sand+ Peat Moss, loamy sand+ plant wastes, loamy sand+ sheep manures), three levels of bio-fertilizers (Without addition, Azotobacter, Mycorrhiza), spraying with Potassium sulfate and at three levels is (0, 1, 2 g.L-1 ).

The study was conducted as a factorial experiment (3 × 3 × 3) according to Randomized Complete Blocks Design (R.C.B.D), with three replicates, each replicate containing 27 treatments, and the averages were compared according to the least Significant difference test (L.S.D) below the 5% probability level.

The results of this study can be summarized as follows: The results showed that the treatment of (loamy sand+ sheep manures) was significantly excelled by giving the best values for most of the studied traits for the Gladiolus plant.

The most important of these were the plant height of (139.40 cm), the leaf area of (1933.01 cm2), The percentage of dry substance in the leaves is (25.08%), the percentage of carbohydrates in leaves is (7.83%), the flowering date of (88.76 days), the flowers number on the inflorescence is (11.35 flowers / inflorescence), Flower duration on the plant of (10.20 days), vase life of (13.77 days), Corm number of (2.41 corm.plants-1 ), the results showed that the treatment of the bio-fertilizer (Mycorrhiza) was significantly excelled on the other treatments by giving it the best values for all the studied traits.

The results showed a positive role for spraying with potassium sulfate.

The spraying treatment with a concentration of (2 mg.L-1 ) was significantly excelled on all studied traits.

In addition, the interaction of (loamy sand+ sheep manures+ Mycorrhiza + potassium sulfate at a concentration of 2 mg.L-1 ) was significantly excelled than the other interaction treatment by giving the highest values in plant height of (161.44 cm), leaf area of (2749.36 cm2), percentage of dry matter in the leaves of (34.59%), percentage of carbohydrates in the leaves (10.71%), flowering date of (75.37 days), flowers number on the inflorescence (14.86 flowers / inflorescence), Flower duration on the plant of (13.77 days), vase life of (16.84 days), Corm number of (3.83 Corm.plants-1 ).