Influence of foliar spraying and added chemical and organic fertilizer on growth and yield of cauliflower Brassica oleracea var. Botrytis

Abstract

This study field was conducted during the growing season of 2009-2010 in the vegetable farm, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad to investigate the influences of the organic and chemical fertilizer which is recommended from the Ministry of Agriculture in the growth and yield of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var.Botrytis) cv. Sold snow. The land was prepaired by plughing and harrowing and leveling and the divided into Block, each block contain 10 experimental units, the area of each unit is 5 m2 with two rows the distance between the rows is 0.9 m with a length of 2.75 m and the experimental treatments included in this study as follows: The control treatment (without fertilizer) (Z0). The treatment total recommended chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T0). The treatment with foliar spraying with (ultrafolirplus 4-4-4) at 1.5 ml/L (T),the treatment with foliar spraying (Travoleaberplus4-4-4-)+1/3recommended chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T1), foliar with Travoleaberplus +2/3 recommended chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T2), foliar with Travoleaberplus + total recommended chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T3). Foliar spraying with organostar at 2 ml/L (T4), folira spraying with organostar + 1/3 recommended chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T5), foliar sprays with organostar+ 2/3 recommended chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T6), foliar sprays with organostar + total chemical fertilizer added to the soil (T7). The experimental total was included,the number of leaves per plant, leaf area, chlorophyll content, the yield and its component, the dry weight of vegetative part and roots and curl. The experimental results showed that there is a significant difference between the chemical and the organic fertilizer as compared with the control treatment.Treatment T3 and T7 gave the highest value of number of leaves, leaf area, chlorophyll cotent of (31.33, 249.73 cm2, 46.96 SPAD unit and 30.90 , 258.63 cm2 , 46.33 SPAD unit as compared with the control treatment which gave 24.70 , 160.3 cm2, 41.63 SPAD unit respectively. Treatment T3 and T7 also gave the highest curl weight, diameter and total yield (1574.5, 1076.56 g.plant-1 and 35.80, 34.87 cm and 24.77, 24.10 ton.ha-1 as compared with the control treatment. The same treatment gave the highest dry weight of roots, vegetative part and curl up to 21.46, 20.45 and 179.37 , 163.83 and 59.2, 58.4 as compared with the control treatment respectively.