Role of Humic Substances and Compost Tea in Improvement of Endogenous Hormones Content, Flowering and Yield and its Components of Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.)

Production of faba bean in Egypt is still limited and fails to face the drastic increasing of local consumption due to decreasing the cultivated area and crop productivity. Two field experiments were carried out at the Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Minufiya University in Shebin El-Kom, Egypt to study the effect of organic substances (control, fulvic acid, humic acid and compost tea) applied either alone or in combinations on growth performance, leaf chemical constitutes, endogenous hormones content, flowering pattern, yield and quality of faba bean (Giza 3 cv.) during the two growing seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. Fulvic and humic acids were added at a rate of 4 kg fed^-1, while compost tea was added at a rate of 20 L fed^-1 during the first irrigation by soil drench method. The obtained results indicated that adding of organic substances either alone or in combinations has an effective role on enhancement of studied characters of plant growth (plant height, number of branches plant^-1, leaf area and dry weights of leaves and stem plant^-1); photosynthetic pigments (total chlorophyll content); endogenous phytohormones (IAA and GA₃); leaf chemical constitutes (N, P, K, Zn; total soluble sugars and crude protein); flowering pattern (count and distribution of flowers and flowering duration); yield components (pods number plant^-1, 100-seed weight, seed yield plant^-1, seed yield fed^-1 andstraw yield fed^-1) and seed chemical composition (protein and carbohydrates % and their yields) as compared to the untreated plants. Compost tea combined with humic acid surpassed the other organic substances for the produced highest values of abovementioned characters with the exception of leaf K content, total soluble sugars, total flowers number plant^-1, flowering duration and seed carbohydrates % which were obtained by humic application. On the other hand, untreated plants have an increase in ABA content and total abscission percent. According to previous, the study recommends the importance of regular use of these organic substances to reduce the need for synthetic commercial fertilizers and the production of safe food through sustainable agricultural development systems.