FOLIAR FERTILIZATION WITH COMMERCIAL LIQUID FERTILIZER FOR IMPROVING GROWTH AND QUALITY OF SEASHORE PASPALUM TURF

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Botanical Gardens Res. Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt.

2 Ornamental Plants and Landscape Gardening Res. Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

An investigation was conducted under the open field
condition at the Experimental Farm of Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza,
Egypt during 2013 and 2014 seasons to study the effect of some
commercial liquid fertilizers; super blue-green (SBG) at the rates of 1
and 3 ml/l, Kalsin-A (K-A) at the rate of 1 ml/l and the combinations
between the two levels of SBG and that of K-A on growth, density and
chemical composition of seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum
Swartz) planted in 40-cm-diameter plastic pots filled with about 6 kg
of sand and clay mixture (1:1, by volume) when applied as a foliar
spray, 5 times with one month interval. The control plants were
sprayed with tap water only.
The obtained results indicated that all single and combined
treatments used in the study markedly improved all vegetative growth
traits of the fertilized plants with various significant differences
compared to control plants in the two seasons. Among the sole
treatments, SBG at 3 ml/l treatment was the superior, whereas the same
fertilizer and K-A one at 1 ml/l for each were the inferior. On the other
hand, combined treatments induced a more improvement in all
vegetative growth parameters than the individual ones, but the
prevalence in both seasons was for SBG at 3 ml/l + K-A at 1 ml/l
combined one, which gave the highest records at all. A similar trend
was also observed as well regarding the leaf content of chlorophyll a,
b, carotenoids, N, P, K, Ca and total soluble sugars except for 1 ml/l KA
treatment which gave the highest content of Ca among the sole
treatments, and the increment in total soluble sugars content was
attained by the individual fertilization treatments as was not significant
relative to control in both seasons. In addition, the total indole content
was significantly increased in response to the different treatments used
in this study to reach the maximum by the two combined treatments.
The opposite was the right concerning the content of total phenols.
Accordingly, it can be advised to spray the herb of seashore
paspalum turf with a combination of super blue-green liquid fertilizer
at 3 m/l plus Kalsin-A at 1 ml/l, five times with one month interval to
obtain the best growth, coverage and colour.

Keywords

Main Subjects