“…The protein hydrolysate treatment significantly increased shoot FW, DW, and root DW from 59 to 89 g, 5.5 to 7.7 g, and 0.52 to 0.80 g, respectively (Table 1). Consistent with the present study, PHs have been identified to enhance plant growth of many crops such as corn [Zea mays (Ertani et al, 2009)], kiwifruit [Actinidia deliciosa (Quartieri et al, 2002) (Colla et al, 2014;Parrado et al, 2008)], radish [Raphanus sativus (Liu et al, 2008)], and lily [Lilium (De Lucia and Vecchietti, 2012)]. The growth enhancement by PHs has been attributed to increased nutrient uptake, assimilation, and metabolism resulting from increases in soil microbial activity, improvement of micronutrient mobility and solubility, modifications in the root architecture of plants, in particular root length, density and number of lateral roots, and increases in activities of enzymes involved in nutrient metabolism (Colla et al, 2014(Colla et al, , 2015Garc ıa-Mart ınez et al, 2010;Lucini et al, 2015).…”