RESPONSE OF POTATO TO ORGANIC FERTILIZER AND ZINC SPRAYING ON SOME GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS AND YIELD

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at the research station of the College of Agriculture, University of Anbar, during the spring season of 2021-2022 to study the effect of adding organic fertilizer and spraying with zinc sulfate on two cultivars of Solanum tuberosum L. The study was conducted as a factorial experiment within the design of completely randomized sectors (RCBD). The first factor included ten composting treatments (control treatment, chemical fertilization treatment, organic fertilization poultry treatment 50 g/plant, organic fertilization treatment 100 g/plant, spraying treatment 1 g zinc sulfate/plant, spraying treatment 3 g zinc sulfate/plant, interaction treatment 50 g organic fertilizer/plant + 1 g zinc sulfate, interaction treatment 50 g organic fertilizer/plant + 3 g zinc sulfate, interaction treatment 100 g organic fertilizer/plant + 1 g zinc sulfate, interaction treatment 100 g organic fertilizer/plant + 3 g zinc sulfate). The second factor included the potato cultivars Naima and Challenger rank Elite. The total number of treatments amounted to 20 and was repeated three times, bringing the number of experimental units to 60. The averages were compared at a probability level of 5%. The results of the experiment can be summarized as follows: Fertilization treatments affected shoot characteristics such as the number of leaves, shoot dry weight, and chlorophyll content in the leaves. The interaction treatments (100 g organic fertilizer + 3 g zinc sulfate) and (50 g organic fertilizer + 1 g zinc sulfate) excelled by achieving the highest shoot dry weight and chlorophyll content, amounting to 349.900 g. plant-1 and 38.430 gm-1, respectively, compared to the lowest value achieved by the control treatment, which amounted to 73.800 gm. plant-1 and 21.130 mg.100 g-1.

Keywords

• potato
• organic fertilizer
• zinc sulfate spraying