Effect of Compost on the growth and flowering of two carnation ( Dianthus caryophyllus L) cultivars

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the lathhouse of the department of horticulture and landscape design faculty of agriculture University of Kufa during the growing seasons of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 to study the effect of compost on the growth and flowering of two carnation cultivars . Seeds were sowa in 15/9/2013 and 2014 for the first and second season respectively and seedlings of the two cultivars (red GIGANTE ROGO and yellow GIGANITE AMARILLIO) produced by Semillas-Fitot Spanish Company at two true leaves stage were transplanted. The experiment comprised three factors, two cultivars of carnation, two types of compost of (rice and wheat residues) and third factor was the levels of compost,(0%,5%,10% and 15% of soil volume) for both organic fertilizers. Experiments were adopted as factor 2×2×4 in randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with three replicates, The means of treatments were compared using the Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) test at 0.05 probability. Results could be summarized as fallows: Red cultivar, had the highest values of leaf area, flower diameter, vase life, flower contents of anthocyanins,and number and diameter of xylem ray vessels, while. yellow cultivar, had the highest values of number of leaves, flowers content of carotene pigment, reduction of days number to flowering in both seasons .Application of wheat residues fertilizer gave highest average values of studied traits as compared to rice residues for both seasons, Application of wheat residues fertilizer at level of 5% to the yellow cultivar led to increase the number of leaves (143.33, 115.67 leaf.plant-1), reduction the number of days to flowering (206.7, 205.0 days) for both seasons respectively, whil the application of wheat residues fertilizer at the level of 10% to the red cultivar increased leaf area (508.4,66.4 cm2), flower diameter ( 5.26 , 6.06 cm), vase life ( 5.67 , 7.33 day),and flowers content of anthocyanins pigment (6.96 , 11.88 mg.100 g-1) for the two seasons respectively, The application of wheat residues fertilizer at the level of 5% to the red cultivar increased the number of xylem ray vessels in(6.00 , 7.66 vessels) in both seasons respectively