Role Of Organic And Mineral Fertilization And Soil Mulching In Some Growth Characteristics And Yield of Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica)

Abstract

To study the effect of organic and mineral fertilization and soil mulching on quality characteristic of broccoli a field experiment was conducted during the season 2013- 2014 at the vegetable field of Horticulture Department, Agriculture College, Abu-Ghraib, Randomized Complete Block Design (R.C.B.D) within split plot arrangement was used where main plots include type of soil mulching (without mulch M0, black M1, blue M2, and red plastic mulch M3) and sub-plot represented by 5 fertilizer treatments: Recommended chemical fertilizers (RCF) T1, Spent Mushroom Compost (SMC) 5% v/v + 75% RCF (T2), SMC 10% v/v + 50% RCF (T3), SMC 15% v/v + 25% RCF (T4) and 20% v/v (SMC) T5. Results showed superiority of black plastic mulch M1in plant high, number af leaves, leaf area, vegetative part dry weight, total chlorophyll, curd weight and yield(70.99 cm,35.07 leaf.plant-1,94.19 dcm2.plant-1,191.8 g.plant-1,529.4 mg.100g-1, 663.1 g and 23.578 ton.ha-1) respectively compared to M0. Treatment T4 resulted in an increase in number of leaves (33.50 leaf.plant-1), leaf area (97.62 to dcm2.plant-1), vegetative part dry weight (194.5 g.plant-1), total chlorophyll (554.8 mg.100g-1), curd weight (722.5 g) and yield (25.689 ton.ha-1),as compared to T1, while highest plant height (71.46 cm) was found in T5 as compared to T1(63.13 cm). Best interaction treatment was M1T4 where highest yield ( 26.311 ton. Ha-1) , while the lowest yield ( 18.050 ton. Ha-1) was obtained from M0T1