Effect of foliar application of two amino acids "arginine and cysteine" and potassium nitrate on the growth and yield of the tomato plants grown in plastic houses

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the winter growing season of 2013/2014 inunheated plastic house conditions belonging to tomato development project in Khor Al-Zubair / Agriculture Directorate of Basrah. The aim was to study the effect of foliarspraying of the aim was to study the effect of foliar spraying of two amino acids (arginineand cysteine) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) on s growth and yield of tomatoLycopersicon esculentum Mill. cultivar" Wogdan". The study included fifteen treatmentswhich were the combinations of five treatments [i.e. Amino acids arginine and cysteineat (75 and 150) mg. l-1 of each of them in addition to the control treatment (used wateronly)] and KNO3, at three concentrations (0 ,1.0 and 1.5) g. l-1 applied by spraying fourtimes at 15-day intervals started three weeks after transplanting.Results showed that spraying with arginine at both concentrations and cysteine at75 mg. l-1 significantly increased leaf area per plant as compared with control treatment.Spraying with arginine at 150 mg. l-1 gave the highest values for nitrogen, potassiumconcentrations, whereas spraying with arginine at 75 mg. l-1 gave the highest value forphosphorus concentration in the leaves. Spraying with arginine at both concentrations andcysteine at 75 mg. l-1 significantly increased total soluble carbohydrate in the leavesspraying with arginine and cysteine at 75 mg .l-1 of each of them increased fruit settingpercentage as compared with control treatment. Spraying with arginine and cysteine at 75mg .l-1 of each of them increased early yield per plant as much as 11.12 and 10.31%, andtotal yield per plant as much as 13.12 and 11.87 % as compared with the controltreatment, respectively.Spraying with KNO3 at 1 and 1.5 g. l-1 significantly increased all parameter studies ascompared with control. The most effective treatment was 1.5 g. l-1 KNO3.