Effect of Foliar Application of Humic Acid, Yeast and Garlic Extracts on Growth, Yield and Quality in Forage Cowpea

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Giza research station, Agriculture research center, Egypt through the two sequential summer seasons 2018 and 2019 to investigate the influence of foliar treatment of humic acid, yeast and garlic extracts on yield and quality of forage, seed yield and its components. Plants were sprayed with foliar application, humic acid, yeast and garlic extract with rate of 8 ml L, 1 gm L and 10 gm L at 21, 45, 75, 100, 120 days after sowing. The results indicated that, the treated plants with humic acid, garlic and yeast extracts achieved the higher values in all studied characters compared with the untreated plants. The values of fresh and dry forage yield were (13.91, 1.98, 13.47, 1.91 and 11.01, 1.53 ton fed ) when apply of humic acid, garlic and yeast extracts, respectively. While the values of control treatment were 9.89 and 1.35 ton fed for fresh and dry forage yield, respectively. The values of seed yield were 528.17, 471.43 and 402.03 kg fed for the treated plants with humic acid, garlic and yeast extracts as compared with the control treatment which recorded 324.99 kg fed. Furthermore, the increase of N, P and K contents, ash, protein, digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrients. The regulating influence of these substances may be attributed to its nutritional effects or its richness in phytohormones and phenolic components, so it may be applied as plant growth regulators. It could be suggested that increase the forage yield, quality and seed yield by foliar application of humic acid, natural of garlic and yeast extracts with easy preparation, low cost, it has no harmful side effects on humans and animal and environmentally safe.