Effect of foliar spray with some elements and organic compounds on growth and yield of spinach Spinacea oleracea L

Abstract

This study was carried out in the vegetable farm , Department of horticulture , College of Agriculture , University of Baghdad , during the growing season 2012 - 2013 to investigate the effects of two factors on spinach ( spinacea oleraceaL ) . The first is the foliar spray of mixture of ( mg + fe + zn ) at three concentration : A0 ( 0 : 0 : 0 ) , A1 (2.5 : 1.25 : 0.5 ) , A2 ( 5 : 2.5 : 1 ) g . L-1 in the form of sulfates of each element . The second factor ( B ) included foliar spry of four organic compounds : Salicylic acid ( B1 ) at 50 mg . L-1 , Ascorbic acid (B2 ) at 250 ppm , Humic acid ( B3 ) at 0.75 ml . L-1 , sea weed extract ( ANE ) ( B4 ) at 1ml . L-1 and the control ( foliar spray with water ) . The foliar spray with the organic compound significantly influenced these characters , ANE gave the highest plant ( 38.71 cm ) , leave area of 605 cm2. Plant-1 , chlorophyll content of 197.90 mg . 100g-1 ( fw ) and total yield of 3.25 kg . m2-1 . Foliar spraying with salicylic acid achieved the highest rate of number of leaves (10.28 leaf . plant-1 ) . Humic acid and ANE gave the same effect in increasing the rate of dry matter to 8.05% and 7.94% respectively . The vegetative characters and yield were increased by increasing the concentration of the mineral elements used in this study . The A2B4 treatment gave the highest leaf area of 698.22 cm2 . plant-1 , chloroPhyll content 204.90 mg. 100 g-1 ( f.w ) and total yield of 3.44 kg . m2-1 while A2B3 gave the highest rate of dry matter 8.37 % .