Effect of Foliar Application of Different Fertilizers on Growth and Leaf Nutrients Content of Lime (Citrus aurantifolia L.) Plants Grown Under Nursery Conditions
A.A. EL-GUZOLI and F.H. EL-TAHIR
Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
ABSTRACT. The effect of foliar application of Fetrilon-Combi2, Com- pound Cryst and Foliar-X fertilizers on growth characteristics and leaf nutrients content of lime plants grown under nursery conditions was investigated. Foliar fertilizers were sprayed every 15 days during the study period of 7 months. The growth parameters were evaluated in terms of plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf size, growth index, and fresh and dry weights of different parts of the plant (leaves, stems and roots). Leaf N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu contents were determined at the termination of the experiment.
The results revealed that all foliar fertilizers gave greater values of all measured growth parameters than the control. Application of Foliar-X resulted in the highest values of most growth parameters, fol- lowed by Compound Cryst and Fetrilon-Combi2 fertilizers, re- spectively. Significantly higher leaf- N, P, K, and Ca contents were detected in the plants sprayed with Foliar-X and Compound Cryst compared to the Fetrilon-Combi2-sprayed plants and control. Higher leaf- Zn, and Mn contents were found in the plants sprayed with Fet- rilon-Combi2 than the other two foliar fertilizers tested. Leaf-Mg, Fe and Cu contents showed no significant differences among the treat- ments.
Introduction
Lime (Citrus aurantifolia L.) is one of the most important citrus trees grown in different parts of Sudan for local consumption and export. The demand for the lime fruits is enormous and therefore there is a great need for intensive research to improve lime growth and production in Sudan.
53
Farouk and Al-Amin (1999) reported that foliar application of Bayfolan (11- 8-6), Wuxal (7-14-7), Nitrofoska (10-2-6) and Foliar-X on banana suckers showed greater increases in all growth parameters than control, and the best re- sults were associated with Foliar-X. Working with banana plants under planta- tion conditions, Bakheit (1994) reported similar findings. Farouk and Hussein (1998) reported that foliar application of Foliar-X, Compound Cryst and Bay- folan fertilizers on guava plants grown under nursery conditions resulted in sig- nificantly higher values of all growth parameters recorded than control and the highest values were reported with plants sprayed with Foliar-X, followed by Compound Cryst and then Bayfolan.
Shawgi (1993) reported that foliar application of Bayfolan, Nitrofoska, Wux- al, Foliar-X and Foliar-X1 resulted in greater values of growth parameters of both lime and guava plants grown under nursery conditions compared to control.
Working with banana plants, Yousif (1996) found that foliar application of Compound Cryst, Fetrilon-Combi2 and X-Garden fertilizers resulted in greater leaf N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, and Cu contents than the control, and the best re- sults were noted with Compound Cryst followed by Fetrilon-Combi2 and then X-Garden. Farouk and Hussein (1998) found that leaf N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Zn contents of guava plants were significantly greater in plants sprayed with Foliar-X, Compound Cryst or Bayfolan than the control. Significantly greater leaf-N, P, Ca, Mg and Zn contents were detected in guava plants sprayed with Foliar-X or Compound Cryst than Bayfolan.
Under nursery conditions, improvement of lime should be oriented towards producing healthy and well-established plants for permanent planting in or- chards. Fertilizer application is a vital practice for fruit crops, however, this practice is not well observed by the nurserymen in Sudan. Therefore, the ob- jective of this investigation was to study the impact of foliar application of dif- ferent fertilizers on growth characteristics and nutrient elements content of lime plants under nursery conditions.
Materials and Methods
Sound seeds were obtained from mature fruits harvested from uniform trees grown in an orchard belonging to the Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan. The collected seeds were thor- oughly washed with tap water and then dried under shade for one day prior to sowing. Thereafter, seeds of the same size, shape and form were selected for sowing in plastic containers containing soil mix (river silt and sand at a ratio of 2:1 by volume). The seedlings were allowed to grow under partial shade for two months prior to the initiation of the treatments.
Plants of uniform size and appearance were selected, weighed and then trans- ferred to plastic pots (15.24 cm in diameter) each containing 1.8 kg of field soil.
The physiochemical properties of the field soil (0-3 cm depth) used are shown as follows:
Particle size
Chemical properties distribution (%)
Clay Silt Sand pH CEC N meq/100 ppm
(meq/100) (%) K Mg Ca P Fe Zn Mn Cu
59.5 16.5 24.0 7.8 60.5 0.06 0.6 12 10 0.01 12.1 0.6 13.1 1.8
The plants were arranged in a randomized complete block design, with four replications. Duncan’s Multiple Range Test at 5% level was used to separate the means of treatments.
The differential treatments consisted of foliar application of three different fertilizers, namely, Compound Cryst, Foliar-X and Fetrilon-Combi2. The com- positions of these fertilizers are shown as follows:
Fertilizer % ppm
N P K Ca S Mg Zn Fe Mn Cu B Mo
Compound cryst 19 19 19 tr tr tr tr tr tr tr tr tr
Foliar-X 10 7 8 tr tr tr 2500 2500 3000 tr tr tr
%
Fetrilon-Combi2 – – – – 2.8 2.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 0.5 1.5 0.05
tr = trace.
The fertilizers were sprayed at a concentration of 6.25 gm dissolved in 250 ml distilled water. The experimental plants were sprayed early in the morning using one-liter hand sprayer. Both upper and lower surfaces of leaves were thor- oughly sprayed to ensure complete coverage of leaves. The plants were sprayed every 15 days during the study period of 7 months. The control plants were sprayed with distilled water only.
Plant growth parameters were evaluated in terms of plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf size, growth index (GI), and fresh and dry weights of different plant parts (leaves, stems and roots). Plant height was meas- ured from the edge of the pots to the terminal bud using a ruler. Stem diameter
was measured at a specific point, 1 cm above soil level, using a vernier caliper.
Measurements of both plant height and stem diameter were recorded after three, five and seven months from planting. All leaves were counted including the youngest ones. Leaf size (cm2) was calculated at the termination of the experi- ment using the following equation:
Growth index (GI) was estimated at the end of experiment using the fol- lowing equation:
At the termination of the experiment, plants were separated into leaves, stems and roots for determination of both fresh and dry weights. Leaves, stems and roots were dried in a forced-draft oven at 70ºC for 48 hours. After complete dry- ing, leaves were ground using a kitchen grinder. The dried leaf samples were thoroughly mixed before taking representative sub-samples for determination of nutrients content. Total nitrogen (N) was determined using a Macro-Kjeldahl method and phosphorus (P) was determined by the ammonium molybdate pro- cedure using a colorimeter. Calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) were de- termined by titration with ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA). Leaf con- tents of potassium (K), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) were determined using an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Perkin-Elmer 2380).
Results
Plant height measurements recorded after three months from planting showed no significant differences among the treatments, however, as the season ad- vanced all sprayed plants resulted in significantly greater increases in plant height compared to the control (Fig. 1).
The greatest values of plant height were associated with Foliar-X, followed by Compound Cryst and then Fetrilon-Combi2 fertilizers. More or less, stem di- ameter measurements showed similar trend as that of plant height measure- ments (Fig. 2).
Table 1 shows the effect of application of different foliar fertilizers on num- ber of leaves, leaf size and growth index of plants. There were no significant differences in number of leaves among all foliar fertilizers used, however, all of these fertilizers resulted in significantly greater values than the control. No sig- nificant differences were noted in leaf size values among the treatments. Sig-
Leaf size leaf length leaf width 2
= +
Growth Index GI plant height plant width diameter
( ) 2 ( )
= +
FIG. 1. Effect of foliar application of different fertilizers on height of lime plants grown under nur- sery conditions.
FIG. 2. Effect of foliar application of different fertilizers on stem diameter of lime plants grown under nursery conditions.
nificantly higher growth index (GI) values were associated with plants sprayed with different foliar fertilizers compared to the control.
TABLE 1. Effect of foliar application of different fertilizers on number of leaves, leaf size and growth index (GI) on lime plants grown under nursery conditions.
Fertilizer material Number of Leaf size Growth Index
of leaves (cm2) (GI)
Fetrilon-Combi2 60.8* a 4.2 a 18.5 a
Compound Cryst 54.4 a 4.5 a 19.1 a
Foliar-X 55.0 a 3.9 a 19.4 a
Control 36.0 b 4.2 a 14.7 b
*Means followed by the same letter within the column are not significantly different at P = 0.05 according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test.
All foliar fertilizers tested resulted in significantly greater values of total fresh and dry weights and those of different parts of plants (leaves and stems), with the exception of roots, compared to the control (Table 2). No significant differences were noted in values of fresh weights of stems, dry weights of leaves and stems and total dry weights of the plants among the foliar fertilizers used. Generally, the greatest values of fresh and dry weights were associated with plants sprayed with Foliar-X fertilizer.
TABLE 2. Effect of foliar application of different fertilizers on fresh and dry weights of different parts of lime plants grown under nursery conditions.
Fertilizer material Fresh weight (gm) Dry weight (gm)
Leaves Stems Roots Total Leaves Stems Roots Total Fetrilon-Combi2 4.6* b 4.3 a 2.5 a 11.4 b 2.4 a 2.2 a 1.5 a 6.1 a Compound Cryst 5.3 b 4.1 a 2.5 a 11.9 b 2.4 a 2.0 a 1.5 a 5.9 a
Foliar-X 6.3 a 4.3 a 3.2 a 13.8 a 2.6 a 2.1 a 1.7 a 6.4 a
Control 3.2 c 2.5 b 2.1 a 7.8 b 1.3 b 1.5 b 1.2 a 4.0 b
*Means followed by the same letter within the column are not significantly different at P = 0.05 according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test.
Table 3 shows the nutrient elements content of leaves as influenced by the differential treatments. Leaf Mg, Fe and Cu contents showed no significant dif- ferences among the treatments. Significantly greater leaf N, P, K, and Ca con-
tents were detected in the plants sprayed with Compound Cryst or Foliar-X than those sprayed with Fetrilon-Combi2 and control, which in turn, showed no sig- nificant differences between them. Higher leaf Zn, and Mn contents were de- tected in the plants sprayed with Fetrilon-Combi2 than the other two foliar fer- tilizers tested.
TABLE 3. Effect of foliar application of different fertilizers on leaf nutrients content of lime plants grown under nursery conditions.
Fertilizer material % dry weight ppm dry weight
N P K Ca Mg Fe Zn Mn Cu
Fetrilon-Combi2 2.0* b 0.13 b 3.4 b 0.8 b 0.22 a 115.0 a 61.5 a 71 a 1.6 a Compound Cryst 2.8 a 0.19 a 4.0 a 1.7 a 0.23 a 100.0 a 44.3 b 56 b 1.8 a Foliar-X 2.8 a 0.19 a 3.9 a 1.8 a 0.23 a 107.5 a 55.8 a 55 b 2.1 a Control 2.0 b 0.13 b 3.4 b 1.1 b 0.18 a 103.8 a 36.3 c 49 c 1.4 a
*Means followed by the same letter within the column are not significantly different at P = 0.05 according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test.
Discussion
Production of healthy and well-established lime plants under nursery condi- tions prior to their transference to the permanent site in the orchard requires the adoption of proper cultural operations, especially fertilization.
All tested foliar fertilizers gave greater increases in all growth parameters measured in terms of plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf size, growth index and fresh and dry weights compared to the control. These findings are in general agreement with those reported by other investigators working with different plant species (Kaska 1986, Shawgi 1993, Bakheit 1994, Ali 1995, Yousif 1996 and Farouk and Al-Amin 1999). The results revealed that the greater values of most of growth parameters were associated with plants sprayed with Foliar-X compared to the other two foliar fertilizers. In agreement with these results are those reported by Shawgi (1993) and Ali (1995) who dem- onstrated that among foliar fertilizers tested, Foliar-X resulted in the greatest in- creases in growth parameters.
From the obtained results, it was evident that foliar application of different fertilizers tended to affect the nutrient elements composition of lime leaves.
Generally, foliar application of Compound Cryst or Foliar-X resulted in sig- nificantly higher leaf contents of N, P, K, and Ca, compared to Fetrilon-Combi2 and the control. This might be due to the presence of these nutrients in the com- position of both Compound Cryst and Foliar-X fertilizers and their lacking in
Fetrilon-Combi2 fertilizer. These findings concurred with those observed by several researchers working with different plant species (Kaska 1986, Shawgi 1993, Bakheit 1994, Ali 1995, Yousif 1996 and Farouk and Al-Amin 1999). In general, the increase in these nutrients was reflected in the increases in the measured growth parameters. Higher leaf contents of Zn, and Mn were associat- ed with plants receiving Fetrilon-Combi2 than the other two foliar fertilizers.
Although Foliar-X fertilizer contains higher amounts of Zn and Fe in its com- position than Fetrilon-Combi2 fertilizer, this was not reflected in the composi- tion of leaf samples of plants sprayed with Foliar-X. All treatments had no sig- nificant effects on leaf Mg, Fe and Cu contents. This finding coincides with those reported by Barnard et al. (1973) and Farouk and Hussein (1998) working with different plant species. The results of this investigation indicated clearly that lime plants grown under nursery conditions tended to respond to the ap- plication of different fertilizer materials using the technique of foliar spray, es- pecially when the soil is deficient in macro- and micronutrient elements, such as the one which was used in the present study.
References
Ali, I.I. (1995) Studies on the effect of cultural practices on growth of banana suckers and guava, lime and sour orange seedlings under nursery conditions in the Sudan. M.Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Bakheit, B.S. (1994) Response of banana plants to different cultural practices in the Sudan.
M.Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Barnard, R.O., Flosher, W.J. and Oberholzer, P.C.L. (1973) The uptake of Zn, Mn, Cu and B from spray mixtures by Navel Orange leaves. Plant and Soil. 39(2): 429-432.
Kaska, N. (1986) Experiments of foliar nutrition of some fruits and vegetables in Adana. In: De- velopments in Plant and Soil Sciences, "Foliar fertilization". Martinus. Nijhoffl Dr. W.
Gunk publisher, 271-291.
Farouk, H.E. and Al-Amin, M.A. (1999) Response of banana suckers to foliar application of dif- ferent fertilizers. University of Khartoum Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 7(2): 39-50.
Farouk, H.E. and Hussein, M.A. (1998) Influence of foliar fertilizers on growth characteristics and leaf nutrients content of guava seedlings. University of Khartoum Journal of Ag- ricultural Sciences 6(2): 27-39.
Shawgi, O.O.A. (1993) Effect of some foliar fertilizers on growth, mineral composition and yield of lime (Citrus aurantifolia) and guava (Psidium guajava L.) under nursery and orchard conditions. M.Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Yousif, M.H. (1996) Studies on the effect of application of different foliar fertilizer materials, crop residues and intercropping on banana plants. M.Sc. Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
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