Growth and macro and micronutrients concentration in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) as influenced by salinity and nitrogen rates
Journal Title: International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences - Year 2012, Vol 3, Issue 4
Abstract
Salinity and nitrogen (N) deficiency are growth limiting factors for most plants including spinach in arid and semiarid areas. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of salinity levels and N rates on growth and concentration of macro and micronutrients in spinach aerial parts. Treatments included four salinity levels 0 (S0), 1000 (S1), 2000 (S2) and 3000 (S3) mg NaCl kg-1 of soil and five N rates 0, 75, 150, 225 and 300 mg N kg-1 of soil as urea. Results showed that shoot dry matter yield (DMY) of spinach decreased at S3 compared to those of S0, S1 and S2. Increasing N rates up to 225 mg kg-1 significantly increased DMY. Addition of NaCl increased concentrations of N, phosphorus (P), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl), but decreased those of potassium (K), iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg) in spinach aerial parts. Increasing NaCl levels, at 300 mg N rate, increased concentration of calcium (Ca) but decreased that of manganese (Mn) in spinach shoot. Application of N rates increased concentration of N, Ca, Mg, Cu and Na in spinach shoot. Iron concentration decreased in shoot at 75 mg N level compared to that of control. Application of N up to 150 mg significantly increased Mn concentration, while decreased that of Cl in spinach shoot. Detrimental effects of salinity at S3 level on the reduction of DMY increased at 225 and 300 mg N rates compared to lower rates of N and salinity. Spinach is considered as a moderately salt sensitive leafy vegetable that tolerance threshold is 2 dS m-1, however; our results indicated that tolerance threshold for Virofly cultivar was at least 8 dS m-1, therefore, it might be considered as a moderately salt tolerant spinach cultivar. In conclusion, over fertilization of N aggravated detrimental effect of salinity on the growth of spinach.
Authors and Affiliations
Jamal Sheikhi*| Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.Email: sheikhi.jamal@yahoo.com, Abdolmajid Ronaghi| Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
Meteorological Drought Prediction in Karoon Watershed using Meteorological Variables
The drought prediction, its severity and occurrence time are among important issues of meteorology and hydrology researchers. In this respect, the importance of weather and meteorological variables for estimating the dro...
Effect of varying concentrations and time of Nanoiron foliar application on the yield and essential oil of Pot marigold
To evaluate the effect of iron on the flower and essential oil yield of Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis), a field experiment as factorial was carried out based on randomized complete block design with three replicati...
Weed interference on soybean performance by using integrated weed management and empirical model
A field experiment was carried out to investigate the efficacy of various weed control methods and johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense L.) water extract (SHWE) spray on soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) yield, some morphologi...
Investigating the effect of consolidated teaching (collaborative, project and traditional) on the academic achievement of the primary 6th grade students in mathematics in the academic year of 2012-13, District 2, Urmia
This study was performed to compare the collaborative, project and traditional consolidated teaching in terms of the academic achievement of the primary 6th grade students in mathematics in the academic year of 2012-13,...
The Effect of Attentional-Focus Instruction on Peripheral Transfer from Dominant Hand to Non- Dominant Hand and Vice Versa in Basketball Dribbling
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of focus of attention (external, internal) on peripheral transfer of basketball dribbling. Recent researches have shown that the focus of attention plays an impo...