EFFECT OF PHOSPHATE FERTILIZATION AND SPRAYING WITH SEAWEED EXTRACT KELP 40 ON QUALITY, MINERAL CONTENT AND BACTERIAL NODULES IN TWO PEA CULTIVARS

Abstract

This study was conducted in the vegetable farm/Hort. & land scape Dept./College of Agric. & Forestry / Mosul Univ. to study the effect of two levels of phosphate fertilization, zero, 40 kg P2O5/Donum, and spraying with three levels of seaweed extract, kelp 40, Zero, 2,4 ml/l in two pea cultivars namely: "Little Marvel and Fabreca". Plants were sprayed twice, the first one at 3-5 true leaf stage, whereas the second after 15 days from the first spraying. Results indicated that phosphate fertilization & seaweed extract showed a clearly effects in TSS, protein percentage of seeds, nitrogen & phosphorus concentrations of leaves, in addition to number of root nodules/plant. Phosphate treatment gave the highest protein percentage (30.08%), while spraying with 4 ml/l of seaweed extract resulted in the highest values of nitrogen, phosphorus concentrations in leaves, and the large number of root nodules/plant. The results revealed also that cultivars varied between them in all parameters studied.