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
                            A study was consummated in the open field at the
 Experimental Farm of Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt during 2013 and
 2014 seasons to explore the response of seashore paspalum (Paspalum
 vaginatum Swartz) turf plants cultivated in 40-cm-diameter plastic pots
 filled with about 6 kg of sand and clay mixture (1:1, v/v) to some
 fertilization treatments, viz., the humic acid liquid fertilizer at 20 ml/l, as
 well as diatomite powder and the commercial complete fertilizer (NPK +
 micronutrients) at 1 g/l for each, and also to the combined treatments
 between 20 ml/l humic acid and one of the abovenamed products at 1 g/l
 for each, when applied with irrigation water (fertigation), five times with
 one month interval. The obtained results showed that all individual
 fertigation treatments significantly improved means of all vegetative
 growth traits over control ones in the two seasons, but the highest means
 were attained by humic acid, moringa leaf powder and the commercial
 complete fertilizer treatments which gave averages closely near together
 with non-significant differences among themselves in most cases of the two
 seasons. However, the least improvement was found due to the sole
 application of diatomite powder at 1 g/l. On the other side, the combining
 between humic acid (20 ml/l) and any one of the other fertilizers (at 1 g/l
 for each) induced an additional improvement in all growth characters, with
 the prevalence of the connecting between humic acid at 20 ml/l and
 moringa leaf powder at 1 g/l, as such combination resulted the tallest plants,
 the highest No. plants/pot, the best coverage and the heaviest fresh and dry
 weights in most instances of both seasons. A similar trend was also
 observed as well regarding the content of chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, N,
 P, K, total soluble sugars and total indoles. The opposite was the right
 concerning total phenols content, which was slightly affected by the most
 of individual and combined treatments applied in this study, except for 1 g/l
 complete fertilizer treatment, alone or in combination with 20 ml/l humic
 acid one that elevated such component to the maximum values in the two
 seasons, as well as the combination of humic acid at 20 ml/l + moringa leaf
 powder at 1 g/l that gave a contrary trend by reducing content of this
 constituent to the minimum values in both seasons.
 So, it is advised to fertigate seashore paspalum turf grown in sand and
 clay mixture (1:1, v/v) with humic acid liquid fertilizer at 20 ml/l plus
 moringa leaf powder at 1 g/l, five times with one month interval to get the
 best growth performance, density, colour and quality
                        
                        
                        
                                                    Keywords
                            
                        
                                                    Main Subjects