Evaluation the Effect of Humic Acid and Some Soil Amendments on Rooting and Growth of Dracaena marginata Cuttings

Abstract

This search was conducted to investigate the impact of Humic acid (H.A.) fertilizer (0.0,10.0,20.0 and 30. 0 g l -1 ) and different media (100% peat moss , 50% peat moss + 50% perlite and 50% peat moss + 50% sand) and their combinations' effect on rooting and growth of Dracaena marginata under greenhouse conditions at the Nursery, Department of Floriculture, Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt during the growing seasons 2021 and 2022. The results showed that terminal cuttings pretreated with H.A. combined with media had significant effects on survival %, rooting %, roots number /cutting, root length (cm), root fresh and dry weight (g). The highest significant values of rooting and growth obtained when Dracaena cuttings cultured in medium composed of 50% peat moss + 50% perlite combined with Humic acid (H.A) at 30.0 gm l -1 concentration. As well as, the highest significant results for total carbohydrates and total leaf chlorophyll content (a + b) were obtained after applying the aforementioned treatments. Chemical analysis also indicated that N, P and K content were markedly increased as H.A. concentrations increased up to 30.0 gml-1 with the growing media of peat moss 50% + perlite 50%. Dracaena cuttings in control treatment (without H.A.) grown in 100% peat moss recorded the lowest significant mean values for all characteristics under study in both seasons. Therefore, it is suggested that growing high-quality Dracaena plants for various aesthetic reasons be performed by treating Dracaena cuttings with H.A. at 20.0 or 30.0 gml-1 and cultivating in a mixture of 50% peat moss + 50% perlite.

The Impact of Adsorbent Ameliorants on some Physical Properties and Potato Yield in Sandy Soil Under Deficit Irrigation Water

“…It's clear that the use of ameliorants increased farmers' economic returns and protect agro-ecosystem (Islam, et al, 2011). Humic acid is a natural soil ameliorant which has the capability for increasing the available water supply to crops suffering water stress in arid and semiarid soils (Turan, et al, 2011 andEl-Naggar &Esmaiel, 2022). The main goal of this study was to evaluate the performance and contribution of applying soil ameliorants alone and in combination with humic acid treatments under deficit irrigation water on some physical properties of sandy soil, morphological characteristics of potato, crop production and water use efficiency (WUE) as well as economic feasibility study for using the soil ameliorants in potato production growing in sandy soil.…”