ROLE OF IRRIGATION SCHEDULAING AND POTASSIUM FERTLIZATION ON SOIL MOISTURE DEPLETION AND DISTRRIBUTION OF QUINOA ROOT

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted at research field station - College of Agriculture - Baghdad University - Abu Ghraib (25 km west of Baghdad). The location lie on latitude 24 44ْ North and longitude 33° 22 west with the elevation of 34m above seat level during the growing season of 2017. The aim of this study is to schedule irrigation of quinoa using the pan evaporation method (pan class-A) under different potassium fertilization and nutrient uptake by the plant . The experimental design was split plot design with three replication including two factor the first was irrigation scheduling at 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 pan evaporation coefficient while the second was potassium fertilization levels were applied to the soil as potassium sulphate (48% K2O) with the level as 0.0 , 60,120 and 180 Kg ha-1. The results showed that there were a significant differences in the concentration of the three major nutrients in the quinoa grains. The highest absorption of the nitrogen element was obtained in the treatment of PEF1.2 and potassium fertilizer 120 Kg ha-1, which reached to 137.03 Kg ha -1, while the absorption of phosphorus and potassium in the quinoa grain was obtained the highest concentration of treatment PEF 1.2 and the level of fertilization of 180 kg ha-1 reached to 16.31 and 83.62 Kgha-1 for phosphorus and potassium respectively, while the protein level in quinoa seeds reached the highest level in the treatment of PEF1.2 and the level of fertilization 120 Kg ha-1.