Effect of Spraying with some Leaf Nutrients on the Growth and Yield of Two Varieties of Local Green Onion Allium cepa L

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted during the 2015-2016 winter agricultural season in the tomato cultivation project with modern technologies of the Basra Agriculture Directorate in KhorAl-Zubair-Basra Governorate with the aim of studying the effect of some leaf nutrients on the growth and yield of two varieties of green onions, It included two factors which were the interaction between two varieties of local white and red onions and spraying with some leaf nutrients, these nutrients were Algaton at two concentrations 2.5 and 5 ml L^-1, Kumulus and Nutri at the concentrations 2.5 and 5 g L^-1 in addition to the comparison treatment (spraying with distilled water only) and by three sprays every two weeks after completion of the emergence of the cultivated onion sets.

Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used to factorial experiment with split plot design with three replications; the mean results were analyzed statistically using Genstat, V. 10.3 (2011) application, and the Least Significant Difference test (L.S.D.) was used to compare the means at a probability level of 0.05.

The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two varieties except for the superiority of the local white variety in total chlorophyll and total soluble carbohydrates in the leaves and the local red variety in the percentage of potassium in the leaves, while the plants sprayed with the nutrient solution Nutri 5 g L^-1 exceeded in most growth indicators, the qualitative and chemical characteristics represented by number of leaves, leaf area, onion neck diameter, fresh and dry weights of the total vegetative, dry weight of roots, number of squamous leaves, fresh (131 g) and dry (15.96 g) weights per bulb, as well as the total weight of the plant (457.17 kg), total productivity (160.92 tons ha^-1), total chlorophyll, total soluble carbohydrates and the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and protein in the leaves, both concentrations of 2.5 and 5 g L^-1of the same nutrient were superior in percentage of sulfur,while the plants that were sprayed with Kumulus at a concentration of 2.5 g L^-1 and those that were sprayed with Algaton at the concentration of 2.5 ml L^-1 exceeded in plant height, and those which were sprayed only with Kumulus at a concentration of 2.5 g L^-1 in bulb diameter, also the plants that were sprayed with the nutrients exceeded the comparison treatment plants in roots fresh weight.

 Most of the bilateral interactions between the treatments were significant in the growth indicators and characteristics under study.