The effect of agriculture media and the quality of irrigation water in the pomegranate leaves content (Wonderful and Salimi cultiars) of some mineral elements

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in Al-Qasim district, Al-Bosmik village, Babylon Province in the season 2017 with three factors. The first factor was three agricultural media [soil only, soil + organic substance (Peat moss) with ratio of 1:1, soil + organic substance (Peat moss) with ratio of 1:3] which is symbolized by B1, B2 and B3, respectively. The second factor is the quality of irrigation water at four levels (1.2 river water, 4.48, 7.58, 10.46 ds.m-1 drainage water), which is symbolized by W1, W2, W3 and W4 Respectively, the third factor is two pomegranates cultivars (Wonderful and Salimi) which is symbolized by V1 and V2 respectively and interaction between them. The experiment was conducted as a factorial experiment according to Randomized Complete Blocks Design (RCBD), with three replicates, each replicate containing 24 treatments with 4 seedlings per experimental unit. The arithmetic averages were measured according to the least significant difference (LSD) %. The results showed that pomegranate seedlings grown in the media of 1 soil volume: 3 organic substance were significantly excelled on other treatments in all studied traits which included the average increase in the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium (2.25%, 0.33, 2.09%, 1.29%, 0.46%), respectively. While the percentage of sodium in the leaves decreased when treating with agricultural media B3 which gave 0.68% and the electrical conductivity at this media amounted of the lowest level of (4.45 ds.m-1). As for the source of irrigation water, the drainage water (10.48 ds.m-1) which is symbolized by W4 gave the lowest averages in the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium (1.45%, 0.18%, 1.13%, 0.63% 0.24%), respectively, obtaining the highest average for the two traits of the percentage for sodium (1.23%) and the electrical conductivity of (7.63 ds.m-1) in this treatment. The results showed that the Wonderful cultivar V1 was significantly excelled in the traits of the percentage for (Mg, Ca, K, P, N) which amounted of (1.97%, 0.28%, 1.64%, 1.06%, 0.37%), respectively compared to Salimi cultivar, the results also showed a decrease in both the percentage of sodium and the electrical conductivity in the soil of the wonderful cultivar compared to the soil of the Salimi cultivar.