Effect of Foliar Spray with Some Growth Stimulants on Growth, Productivity and Quality of Cucumber Plants Grown under Greenhouse Conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Egypt

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out under plastic greenhouse at the experimental farm of vegetables, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University during the two successive winter seasons of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 to study the effect of foliar application with some growth stimulants, i.e., amino acids at 0.5 and 1 g/L, zinc at 1 and 2 g/L, caboron ® (calcium boron) at 2 and 4 ml/L, salicylic acid at 0.5 and 1 g/L, chitosan at 2 and 4 g/L and lithovit ® (micronized calcium carbonate) at 1 and 2 g/L in addition to the control treatment (sprayed with distilled tap water) on vegetative growth, chemical constituents of plant foliage, productivity and fruit quality of cucumber plants of Craze hybrid. The experiment was designed as complete randomized block with 3 replicates. Obtained results showed that treating the plants with the higher level of amino acids i.e.1 g/L followed by caboron at 4 ml/L exhibited the highest values for all measured vegetative growth aspects, photosynthetic pigments, macronutrients content and total carbohydrates. As for yield productivity, the highest number of fruits/plant, fruit yield/plant and total fruit yield/m2 were obtained as a result of spraying cucumber plants with Caboron ® at 4 ml/L every 10 days intervals starting 21 days form transplanting with the best physical and chemical properties.  

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