Effect of Foliar Fertilization with Zinc and Plant Density on Some Characteristics of Vegetative Growth and Yield of Two Cultivars of Faba Bean Vicia faba L.

Abstract

A factorial experiment was carried out according to the randomized complete block design (RCBD) with the split-split-plot arrangement with three replications during the season of 2020-2021 at the Research Station of the College of Agriculture, University of Diyala to study the effect of three factors are the cultivar (Aguadulce and Histal), the plant density (55555 plants. h-1 and 111111 plants. h-1), and the foliar spraying with a zinc fertilizer (0.5,1 and 1.5 g..l-1) on the vegetative growth of the faba bean. The results showed that Aguadulce cultivar was superior in plant height (152.80 cm) and Histal cultivar was distinguished in pod length (21.87 cm), while there were no significant differences between cultivars in the stems number, pods number, total yield and number of seeds per pod. The grown plants on low density (55555 plants. h-1) was superior in the stems number (14.20 stems. plant -1), the pods number (29.23 pods. plant -1), the pods length (21.74 cm) and the seeds number per pod (5,191 seeds. pod-1), while the grown plants on the high density (111111 plants. ha-1) was superior in plant height (147.10 cm) and the total yield (107.63 tons.ha-1).The fertilized plants at a concentration of 1.5 g. l-1 was significantly superior in the plant height (152.80 cm), stems number (14.40 seed. pod-1), number of pods per plant (34.52 seed. pod-1), number of seeds per pod (6.20 seed. pod-1) and pod length. (22.84 cm) and the green yield (144.17 tons. h-1).As for the triple interaction, the plants of Histal cultivar that planted on low density and treated with a concentration of 1.5 g. l-1 of zinc fertilizer was superior in the number of stems, number of pods, length of pod and number of seeds per pod, while the plants of the same cultivar that planted on high density and fertilized at a concentration of 1.5 g. l-1 was superior in plant length and the total yield.