Effects Of Gibberellic Acid, Proline And Humic Acid On The Growth, Yield And Chemical Composition Of Two Zea mays L. Cultivars (Baghdad-3 And Fajir-1)
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Date
2016-09
Authors
Ibrahim, Nagham Saddon
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Abstract
The corn plant or Zea mays is considered as one of the major food grains that have been consumed by people around the world. The demand for corn has increased dramatically and gained lots of attentions due to its economic importance and utility. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the impacts of gibberellic acid, proline, and humic acid, and their synergistic effect on the growth, yield and chemical composition of two Iraqi cultivars of Zea mays L., Baghdad-3 and Fajir-1. A field experiment was carried out in a clay loam soil from March to July 2014 at the Ghlibia research station, Diyala, Baghdad. A Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) consisted of 18 treatments for each cultivar of corn was conducted and each treatment was replicated three times. The treatments were conducted with gibberellic acid (0, 100, and 200 mg/l), proline (0, 100, and 200 mg/l) and humic acid (0 and 2.4 g/l). Gibberellic acid and proline were sprayed twice on the plant leaves. The first application was during the stage of 4–6 leaves post germination, while the second was at the beginning of flowering stage. Humic acid was added directly to the soil during the two stages. Gibberellic acid, proline, and humic acid were added individually as well as in simultaneously, in accordance with the experimental design. Harvesting was done manually during the mature stage of the plant at the age of 120 days, so as to investigate the plant characteristics. Data were statistically analyzed using variance analysis (ANOVA), and compared using Duncan's Multiple Range Test at 0.01 and 0.05 levels of probability. Results show that the additions of gibberellic acid, proline, and humic acid individually caused significant increments
(p<0.01) in the vegetative characteristics i.e. plant height, leaf area and fresh weights of the shoot and root. Also, significant increments were obtained (p<0.01) in the cultivars yield and yield component characteristics i.e. number of ears per plant, weight of grains per ear and per plant, grain yield per plot and per hectare. On the other hand, the result showed significant increments (p<0.01) in the chemical composition i.e. grain oil, protein, phosphorus percentages, and leaves content of K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, and Cu. On the other hand, Baghdad-3 showed higher response than Fajir-1 in most of the studied characteristics. The synergistic effect between 100 mg/l gibberellic acid, 200 mg/l proline and 2.4 g/l of humic acid caused noticeable increments in all the studied characteristics, but these were not significant.
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The impacts of gibberellic acid, proline, and humic acid , and their synergistic effect on the growth.