Biochar Combined with Foliar Application of Chelated and Nano Iron Enhanced Qualitative and Quantitative Attributes of Polianthes tuberosa, L. Plants

Abstract

T WO pots experiments were conducted during the two consecutive growing seasons of 2020 and 2021 at Beni-Suef governorate, Egypt, to compare the influence of biochar treat - ments (50, 100 and 200 g/pot) combined with foliar application of chelated and nano iron (250 and 500 mg L -1 ) on growth productivity and chemical composition of tuberose plants. The best result for vegetative attributes (leaf number/ plant, leaf fresh and dry weights/ plant), flowering characteristics (flowering date, florets number / plant, florets fresh weight / plant, spike length and diameter in addition to fresh weight), vase life, bulbs productivity (number of new bulblets/ plant in addition to fresh and dry weights of the replacement clumps), oil %, photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrates% in corms were obtained due to high level of biochar (200 g/ pot). Regarding iron fertilization treatments, all of the above mentioned qualitative and quantitative attributes of tuberose plants were considerably augmented due to Fe-chelated at 500 mg L -1 followed by 250 mg L -1 then nano-iron at 500 mg L -1 while nano-iron at 250 mg L -1 gave the least values. Spike diameter did not appear to be appreciably changed by any of the four iron fertilization treatments.