Iron (Fe) has very low solubility and plant availability in calcareous soils, and this generally results in restricted plant production and low quality. During last decades, various commercial chelated fertilizers have been used in agricultural systems to meet iron requirements of crops. However, despite extensive application of these commercial chelate fertilizers, there is real doubt and high concerns regarding many aspects of their action, dynamics, efficiency, and safety in plant-soil–environment systems. In the present study, growth and quality of green bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were evaluated under foliar and soil applications of Fe-glycine chelate (iron glycine aminochelate) and commercial Fe-EDDHA chelate in a lime soil.

Various organic residues and animal manures represent an excellent matrix material for production of natural-based pellet fertilizers. Fully decomposed cow manure with 50% w/w urea was used for pellet production in densities of 400 or 800 kg/m3, representing low and high compact urea pellets. The growth of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.), garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.), and parsley (Petroselinum crispum Mill.) were then evaluated under application of these pelleted urea compared to urea alone and unfertilized plants. The total amount of applied nitrogen (N) in the form of urea or pelleted urea was 300 mg/kg soil, wherein pelleted urea treatments, 30% of N was incorporated into the soil as urea alone before planting. The results showed

The growth and morpho physiological parameters of marigold plants were evaluated under different nitrogen (N) fertilization during spring and summer of 2014 using pot experiment. A soil with no cultivation background and low level of nitrogen was used for plant cultivation. Nitrogen from urea and at four levels of 0 (control), 50, 100, 200mgNkg-1 soil was applied and incorporated into the pot soil before and after transplanting. The results showed that marigold overall growth was improved by nitrogen fertilization; however N50 had no significant effect on plant growth compared to control. Nitrogen levels of N100 and N200 were significantly improved plant growth and quality parameters. The plant fresh and dry weight, and flower fresh weight

Plants have the ability to suppress microbial nitrification process through secondary metabolites released from their root exudates or/and leaf litter. For decades, grasses were suggested to control nitrification process, and recently, Brachiaria humidicola accession 26159 (BH) as a tropical and subtropical grass has been shown to reduce nitrification rates under laboratory and soil conditions. In this study, experiments were conducted under controlled conditions in nutrient solution culture to investigate whether the reported release of natural nitrification inhibitors from root exudates of BH is an active or passive phenomenon. So different variables such as N-form (nitrate vs. ammonium), collecting medium (distilled water vs. 1 mM NH4Cl)

Potassium (K) is a major nutrient element that has effects on growth, yield, and quality production of agricultural crops. In the present study, the effects of various K concentrations in a nutrient solution including 150, 235, 300, 400, or 500 mg KL− 1 were evaluated on two pepper cultivars; chili pepper (Capsicum annuum Avicolare) and bell pepper (California Wonder) under greenhouse conditions. Hoagland's formula was used for preparation of nutrient solutions. The vegetative growth parameters including plant height, leaf area, SPAD value, and shoot fresh weight were significantly increased by 300 mg L− 1 K in both cultivars. The highest yield and fruit quality parameters including fruit length/diameter ratio, fruit dry matter percenta

Nowadays, knowing that chemical fertilizers have distinct pollution effects on environmental quality parameters, the organic fertilizers represent a suitable and safe alternative, at least for landscape applications. However, the response of many ornamental and landscape plants, including Sweet William, to different chemical and organic fertilizers are not well known. Thus, this factorial experiment was conducted as a pot experiment, based on completely randomized design with three replications, to investigate the yield and quality responses of Dianthus barbatus to different levels of organic manure (0, 20 and 40% V/V) and NPK fertilizer (0, 1, 2 and 4 g/kg soil) under greenhouse conditions. Results of the experiment showed that application

Heavy metal accumulation in vegetable tissues often poses a great risk for human health. In the present study, accumulation of heavy metal in green leafy vegetable crops of coriander, garden cress, lettuce and spinach were evaluated under waste water irrigation in fields located in Kahrizak, on the southern edge of the metropolitan city of Tehran, Iran. Atomic absorption spectrophotometery was used for determination of heavy metal concentrations in leaf tissue. The results showed that heavy metal concentrations in soil and irrigation water were significantly high than allowable levels. Analysis of plant leaf tissue showed that spinach and garden cress accumulated higher concentrations of heavy metals compared to coriander and lettuce plants

This study was done to evaluate the growth responses of tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) to foliar application of ammonium sulfate in different concentrations of 0, 50, 100, or 200 mM once per week, as well as 50 mM in every other day under greenhouse and hydroponic culture system. The results showed that foliar application of ammonium restricted the plant height, yield, and vitamin C content of fruits, but it increased the chlorophyll content in treated plants. The highest and the lowest yield were obtained from zero (control) and 200 mM treated plants, respectively. Fruit hardness was not affected by treatments, while blossom end rot disorder was increased by higher concentrations of ammonium sulfate. In general, the result i

Tomato is a typical plant that has distinct response to different nitrogen forms in hydroponic culture. In addition, it is a well known susceptible plant to ammonium nutrition in hydroponic culture. However, its response to foliar application of nitrogen sources and N-forms has not been well investigated. In the present study, the growth, productivity and fruit quality of tomato was investigated under foliar application of nitrogen from different sources. Ammonium sulfate, urea and calcium nitrate with constant concentration of 100 mM N were weekly sprayed during four months under hydroponic culture system. A water spray treatment was considered as control. The results showed that vegetative growth parameters were significantly affected by

Aminochelates are relatively new fertilizer formulations with improved efficiency for agricultural applications. Many plant responses to these amino acid-based fertilizers have not yet been well studied. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of soil (six split applications at a final volume of 5 mL) and foliar application (six applications at 0.2% concentration) of a commercial aminochelate (liquid fertilizer consisting of 2.0% N-amino acid, 2.5% Zn, 2.0% Fe, 1.5% Mn and 0.4% Cu) on growth, yield, and quality traits in three vegetable crops including tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), and green bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) under field conditions in lime soil. Plant growth, yield, and quality parameters signific

Nitrification inhibitory properties of plant substances offer potential benefits for agricultural applications. In this study, hexane-extracted seed oil, and 10, 20, and 30 mg/pot dry powder of seed exocarp and mesocarp from Acrocomia totai were applied in a quick nitrification bioassay for 24 or 50 hr, as well as for 4 weeks laboratory soil incubation, to investigate their effects on nitrification process. Results showed that applied oil concentrations significantly reduced nitrification rates. The extent of inhibition was increased with the oil concentrations from 5 to 25 ?l in both experiments. The exocarp and mesocarp powders also inhibited nitrification, but it was not as high as oil-induced inhibition. Analysis of oil fatty acids show

This study was done to evaluate the effects of foliar application of ammonium sulfate on growth and fruit quality of tomato plants under hydroponic culture system. Over four months of tomato plant growth, plants were sprayed once per week with different concentrations of ammonium sulfate (0, 50, 100 and 200 mM), as well as with 50 mM every second day. Foliar application of ammonium sulfate led to reductions in many growth and quality parameters, and higher ammonium concentrations exerted greater reductions. Number of leaves, fresh weight of shoots, percentage of leaf dry weight and fruit yield were negatively associated with the treatment with ammonium sulfate. However, leaf nitrogen concentration, fruit diameter and fruit length increased

Nitrogen (N) fertilizers are widely used in vegetable production, particularly in leafy vegetables such as sweet basil. Nitrogen fertilizers have high solubility and low efficiency rates and in cropping systems are applied in high amounts that result in different health and environmental problems. Despite their high application, however, the plant's need of N may not be meet. In this study, growth and production of sweet basil was investigated under application of urea in pellet forms under greenhouse conditions. Treatments were control (without fertilizer application), urea, pellet with low compaction+ 35% urea, pellet with low compaction+ 50% urea, pellet with high compaction+ 35% urea, and pellet with high compaction+ 50% urea (w/w) with

This study was carried out in the K???k Menderes River basin in order to determine the water quality and investigate the environmental quality and the applicability of both the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) and Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT). Monitoring took place in May, July and September 2014 at 10 stations (7 rivers and 3 lakes) according to the method of Intercalibration Common Metrics. Some metrics (BMWP, ASPT, Family Biotic Index, Simpson Diversity Index, Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index, Margalef Diversity Index, dominance, frequency and existence of sensitive species) were calculated. In total, 69 taxa comprising 5,814 individuals were detected. The taxa having the highest frequency rate were Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri (70

Cucumber represents one of the most important fruit vegetables in the world which has an undeniable role in human nutrition and especially vegetarian nutritional diets. Therefore, yield and quality improvement of this crop is very important. This study was carried out during 2014 to evaluate the effects of foliar application foliar application Subject Category: Techniques, Methodologies and Equipment

This study was conducted under Ahvaz, Iran environmental condition during 2012 and 2013 growing seasons in order to investigate the influence of foliar application of potassium on some physiological and biochemical characteristics of three olive cultivars including ‘Mission’,‘Koroneiki’and ‘Dezfuli’. Potassium sulfate in different concentrations of 0, 1, and 2 gl-1 was sprayed twice on selected mature 10 year old trees; at 50 and 65 days after full bloom. Potassium sprays increased leaf chlorophyll content of all cultivars, leaf potassium content in ‘Mission’and ‘Koroneiki’cvs., fruit anthocyanin concentration of ‘Dezfuli’in two crop seasons. However, K treatments had no significant effect on leaf N and P content, fr

The aim of this study was to evaluate effects of nitrogen and flower pruning on morphological characteristics, seed yield and silymarin content of Milk thistle. The experiment was conducted as split plot, in which the main factor was nitrogen at three levels of 0 (N0), 50 (N50) and 100 (N100) kg/ha, and the sub factor was pruning at three levels; without pruning (P0), pruning of one flower (P1) and two flowers (P2). Results indicated that the interaction between nitrogen and flower pruning had significant effect on plant height, as maximum and minimum plant height were obtained from N100P2 and N50P1 treatments, respectively. The highest and the lowest seed yield were found in the N50P2 and N0P0 treatments, respectively. Number of seeds per