INFLUENCE OF SOWING DATES AND FOLIAR SPRAY WITH SOME MICRONUTRIENTS IN GROWTH AND YIELD OF Eruca vesicaria sub sp sativa AND ITS CONTENT OF MEDICALLY ACTIVE COMPOUNDS

Abstract

Abstract :This study was conducted in the vegetable fields , Department of Horticulture , College of Agriculture , University of Baghdad during the growing seasons of 2010-2011 to investigate the influence of planting dates and foliar sprays with Zn , Fe , and B on growth , yield and medical compounds in rocket (Eruca vesicaria sub sp sativa). The experiments consist of two factors , the first were two planting dates in autumn season , 15/9/2010 and15/10/2010 and two planting dates in spring season , 15/2/2011 and 15/3/2011 .The second factor was the foliar spray , with ZnSO4 at 1.5 and 3 g / L, Fe-APCA at 5 and 10 g/L and Boric acid at 0.75 and 1.50 g/L . Split Plot Design was adapted with 3 replicates.The experimental results can be summarized as follows :The first planting date significantly increased the height plant , leaf area , fresh weight of first cut for both growing seasons. Growing rocket plants in autumn season significantly produced the highest glycosides such as glycosinolate and also the highest alkaloids such as astragalin and the highest coumarins in the leaves and the seeds, The foliar sprays with Zn in both seasons significantly increased the vegetative characters such as the height of the plant , leaf area and the fresh weight. Increasing the Boron concentration significantly increased the percentage of the medical compound such as glycosinolate in the leaves and seeds ,the alkaloids such as the Astragalin and coumarins in the leaves and the seeds, The interaction between the foliar spray with zinc phosphate and planting date gave the highest leaf area and the highest fresh weight, in autumn and spring season, The interaction between the foliar spray with Boric acid and planting date significantly increased the content of glycosinate in the leaves and seed and the highest content of astragalin in leaves, The interaction between the foliar spray with zinc phosphate and planting season significantly gave the highest Astragalinin the seeds during spring season, The interaction between the foliar sprays with Fe-APCA and planting season significantly increased content of coumarins of in the leaves during spring season