Response of cabbage plant to soil mulching and foliar application of chelated iron grown in southern Iraq

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the season of 2012-2013 at Abualkhasab,Basrah governorate to study the effect of soil mulching and foliar application ofchelated iron at three levels 0, 50, 100 mg.l-1 on growth and yield of cabbage plantcv."local". Results showed that polyethylene mulching significantly increased the stemdiameter and weight of folded leaves, weight of plant , head weights and totalmarketable yield as much as 8.06, 27.06, 17.98 and 21.71 %, respectively, compared towithout mulching treatment. Foliar spraying of chelated iron at 100 mg.l-1 increasedstem diameter and weight of folded leaves, weight of plant , head weights and totalmarketable yield as much as 17.9, 67.03,69.14,74.88 % respectively compared tountreated treatments. Plants grown in mulched soil and foliar spraying of chelated ironat level 100 mg.l-1 produced total marketable yield of 24.721 ton.donum-1 as comparedto that planted at mulch soil and untreated with iron 10.265 ton.donum-1.