Response of Pomegranate Trees to Herd Manure Addition and Spraying with Fulvic Acid and Brassinolide

Abstract

This experiment was conducted on “Salemy” pomegranate cultivar, ten years old, in two private orchards in Tikrit, village of Albu Hayaa’a, and governorate of Kirkuk - Hawija district, village of Suleiman al-Gharb, for agricultural season 2022, to study the effects of adding herd waste, fulvic acid spraying, and growth regulator Brassinolide on vegetative growth, yield, leaves, and kernels’ nutrient content. The experiment was applied with three factors; first factor is addition of herd waste (O) and in three levels is without the addition of (O0) and addition of 5 kg.tree-1 (O5) and addition of 10 kg.tree-1 (O10), second factor is spraying fulvic acid (F) with two concentrations, without spraying (F0) and a concentration of 4 g.L-1 (F4), and third factor is spraying with three concentrations of plant growth regulator brassinolide (B), without spraying (B0) and 0.15 mg.L-1 (B0.15) and a concentration of 0.3 mg.L-1 (B0.3). The treatments were designed as a factorial experiment according to randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with three replications and one tree for one experimental unit. The experimental results showed that herd manure fertilizers at 10 kg.Tree-1(O10) significantly increased in shoot length of 55.44 and 72.47 cm, highest leaf area of 6.28 and 7.55 cm2, leaf nitrogen content of 1.522 and 1.594 % and highest leaf phosphor content of 0.357 and 0.430 %, for locations of Tikrit and Hawija, respectively. Results also showed that fulvic acid spray especially at 4 g.L-1 (F4), showed significant superiority in increased in shoot length of 54.97 and 69.23 cm, leaf area of 6.21 and 7.24 cm2, leaf nitrogen content of 1.516 and 1.596 % and leaf phosphor content of 0.351 and 0.412 % for locations of Tikrit and Hawija, respectively. Brassinolide spray also affected, especially spraying at 0.3 mg.L-1 and gave highest increasing of shoot length of 54.84 and 73.73 cm, highest leaf area of 6.19 and 7.78 cm2, leaf nitrogen content of 1.547 and 1.627 % and highest leaf phosphor content of 0.377 and 0.439 % for locations of Tikrit and Hawija, respectively. Twice and triple interactions between study factors had a significant effect in these traits.