Sweet Corn as Affected by Foliar Application with Amino – and Humic Acids under Different Fertilizer Sources

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

TWO FIELD experiments were conducted at the Experimental …….Station Farm (at Abies), Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt, during the two summer seasons of 2014 and 2015. The objective of this investigation was to study the main effects of three different fertilizer sources as well as control (20 m3fed-1 chicken manure, 30 m3fed-1 cattle manure and 100 – 40 – 60 kg NPK fed-1, as recommended rates from each one of the three sources of fertilizer), foliar spray using two sources of growth stimulants as well as the control (spray with distilled water), (2 g L-1 amino acid and 2.5 ml L-1 humic acid), and their interaction on growth, yield and its component characters, and some chemical composition of kernels and leaves of sweet corn. The obtained results indicated that the application of chicken manure to sweet corn plants increased the most measured vegetative and kernels quality ( plant height, leaves number plant-1, kernels dry matter, reducing sugars, total sugars, T.S.S.), while, the application of either chicken manure or cattle manure, significantly, increased sweet corn yield, ears characteristics and NPK leaves content. Regarding the effect of foliar spray by amino – and humic acids, the results pointed out that the application of amino acid foliar spray were significantly associated with corresponding increases in the most important characters of sweet corn plants. The results concerning of the first order – interaction indicated that the application of chicken – or cattle manure fertilizer combined with the foliar spray with amino – or humic acids, resulted in the highest mean values of the vegetative growth characters, and most of the studied yield and its components characters. The most favorable combination treatment was chicken manure combined with amino acid foliar spray, which gave the highest mean values for the most previous studied characters.

Keywords