Naser Nasrolahzadehasl; Mojtaba Delshad; Abdolkarim Kashi
Abstract
Introduction: Cucumis sativus L. is one of the most eminent and consuming vegetables which is widely cultivated in the Middle East. Using the controlled and greenhouse cultivation is one of the most appropriate methods to increase production per unit area. In this method, controlling the effective factors ...
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Introduction: Cucumis sativus L. is one of the most eminent and consuming vegetables which is widely cultivated in the Middle East. Using the controlled and greenhouse cultivation is one of the most appropriate methods to increase production per unit area. In this method, controlling the effective factors of production such as plant nutrition is the important factor to achieve high performance. Besides the accuracy applied in nutritional regulation of plant roots (both in soil and hypothermic environments), in many cases, foliar nutrition is considered by breeder of greenhouse productions. Foliar nutrition is more effective on young leaves, and deficiency of macro and micro nutrients can be removed by this factor. Khassib is one of the most important cultivar of greenhouse cucumber which is widely cultivated in Iran. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of foliar application on greenhouse cucumber.
Materials and Methods: The experiment was performed on greenhouse cucumber (cv. Khassib) for five months (from March 2007 to July 2008) in Ziba Dasht Technical Instruction Center which is located near Karaj, Iran. For this reason the experiment was conducted based on split-split-plot design with three replications. Eight experimental treatments were applied for foliar application including U1C1B1: urea + calcium nitrate +boric acid, U1C1B0: urea + calcium nitrate, U1C0B1: urea + boric acid, U1C0B0: urea, U0C1B1: calcium nitrate + boric acid, U0C1B0: calcium nitrate, U0C0B1: boric acid, U0C0B0: control. The effects of urea, calcium nitrate and boric acid in concentrations 3, 10 and 0.5 (gL-1) respectively on qualitative and quantitative characteristics of greenhouse cucumber, including fruit yield, yield of first class fruit, number of fruits, percentage of first class fruit, fruits T.S.S, plant length, percentage of leaf dry matter, and leaf weight ratio were studied.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that calcium nitrate had a significant effect on fruit yield at 5% probability level. Foliar application of calcium nitrate with concentration of 10 gL-1resulted in an increase of yield so that the average of fruit yield for sprayed plants was 3917.9 g per plant, while this value in control plants was 3576.5 g. Boric acid with concentration of 0.5 gL-1 had a remarkable effect on fruit yield at 5% probability level that enhanced the average of yield from 3591.6 to 3902.8 g per plant. The interaction of U×C×B treatment on fruit yield at 1% probability level was significant, while this value was not found among other treatments. Foliar application with calcium nitrate results in an increase of yield and production in young and growing fruits. The augmentation of yield in treatment U1C0B0 due to the facts that pure urea and calcium nitrate have 46% and 16% nitrogen, respectively, i.e., extra nitrogen causes toxicity and branching instead of fruiting. Among three-way interactions, U×C×B statistically had a remarkable impact on the yield of first class fruit at 1% probability level and also the maximum and minimum of this value belonged to U1C0B0 and control, respectively. Only U×C×B had a remarkable impact on plant length among all interactions. Generally, the growth of cucumber depends on genetic features, temperature and soil productivity. The highest level of leaf area index was for calcium nitrate that indicated the significant effect at 5 % probability level with the mean of 15.89. When we compare the foliar application treatments with fosamko, it can be found that the spraying treatments affected leaf dry matter significantly at 1% and 5% probability levels, while this value was not found for control treatments. However, there was no significant difference between using and not using nutrition compared to fosamko on yield.
Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study the following factors can be concluded: a) Among the main effects, calcium nitrate played the eminent role on most traits, after that boric acid and finally urea carried this role; b) Among two-way interaction, only U1B1, as foliar application, significantly affected the yield of grade 1 fruit; c) Among three-way interactions, only U1C0B0, as foliar application, significantly affected the yield of grade 1 fruit, total fruit and the number of fruit; d) There was no a significant change on qualitative features of cucumber using nutrition compared to fosamko. Therefore, cucumber production can be performed by cheaper methods with no change in qualitative characteristics. Finally, due to the fact that cucumber is one of the most important vegetables in Iran, it is suggested that various studies with different fertilizers will be conducted on cucumber.
Mojtaba Delshad; Roghayeh Alfatahi; Toktam Sadat Taghavi; Masud Parsinejad
Abstract
Abstract
Low water holding capacity of soilless substrates increases water stress and waste of nutrient solution. Irrigation time management can reduce such problems. In this research, responses of hydroponically cultured greenhouse strawberries were evaluated under different irrigation schedules. In ...
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Abstract
Low water holding capacity of soilless substrates increases water stress and waste of nutrient solution. Irrigation time management can reduce such problems. In this research, responses of hydroponically cultured greenhouse strawberries were evaluated under different irrigation schedules. In first step, plant daily water need was estimated and then delivered to plants through two methods: One time irrigation (total amount delivered to plants at early morning) and multiple irrigation in which the amount of nutrient solution divided in to 4 parts and delivered to plants during day. Result showed that graduate irrigation could improve medium moisture status, reduce stomatal resistance, improve leaf water potential and finally increase yield and plant water use efficiency.
Keywords: Irrigation, Stomatal resistance, Leaf water potential, Strawberry yield
Azadeh Esfandiari; Toktam Sadat Taghavi; Mesbah Banalar; Mojtaba Delshad
Abstract
Abstract
In order to provide optimal yield and quality of tomato fruit (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Beril), different growing media for soilless culture of tomato plants were studied. seedling of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill, cv. Beril ) were cultivated in perlite, mixture of perlite with ...
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Abstract
In order to provide optimal yield and quality of tomato fruit (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Beril), different growing media for soilless culture of tomato plants were studied. seedling of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill, cv. Beril ) were cultivated in perlite, mixture of perlite with NH4-zeolite and with raw zeolite (z:p ratio 10v:90v) and fed by two nutrient sources: a) complete nutrient solution (N+) b) nutrition solution with 30% decrease in N concentration. The experimental design was split plot with complete randomized block design. Fruit quality and yield were determined during growth. Result indicated that fruit yield, length of fruits and titrable acidity decreased and small fruits increased with reducing nitrogen in solution. Solution didn’t significally effects in yield. Fruit weight were reduced significantly with nitrogen decreasing in nutrition solution, But solution types didn’t affect on yield. Media significantly affected yield, Weight of fruit, number of fruit per plant and medium fruits (70-100g). The highest of this characteristic obtained in saturated zeolite and perlite. Interaction effect of incomplete solution and saturated zeolit media caused a reduction in weight of fruit, dry mater, small fruit ratio in yield and vitamin C in comparison to other media. There weren’t significantly difference among TSS, firmness and density.
Key words: soilless culture, media, zeolite, nitrogen
Mastaneh Ahrar; Mojtaba Delshad; Mesbah Babalar
Abstract
Abstract
Soilless culture of greenhouse vegetables has been a fast developing section in Iran during recent years. Most growers use hydroponics systems with artificial substrates. Some of the used substrates have low water retention which results in wasting a great deal of solution. On the other hand, ...
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Abstract
Soilless culture of greenhouse vegetables has been a fast developing section in Iran during recent years. Most growers use hydroponics systems with artificial substrates. Some of the used substrates have low water retention which results in wasting a great deal of solution. On the other hand, low vigor of cucumber root in water and fertilizer absorption, especially in low media temperatures causes decrease of absorption and yield as well as appearing deficiency symptoms. In this research we studied effect of hydrogel amendment and Cucurbita pepo. Rootstock on hydroponicaly cultured greenhouse cucumber. Results showed that incorporating hydrogel into media could improve perlit physical properties and increased it’s water holding capacity. This condition could also decrease leaching fraction and increase yield and water/ fertilizer use efficiency. Furthermore, grafted plants grown in non-amendment substrates had higher yield and water/ fertilizer use efficiency compared to non grafted ones.
Key words: Water holding capacity, Leaching fraction, Yield, Super absorbent
