Effect of Spraying with Normal and Nano Iron on the Growth and Flowering of Petunia Plant Petunia hybrid L.

Abstract

The research was carried out in lath house of the Department of Horticulture and Landscaping - College of Agriculture / University of Anbar during two growing season 2021-2022, in order to study the effect of spraying with normal and nano iron on the growth and flowering of petunias. Normal iron was used in concentrations (0, 50 and 100 mg L-1), which was represented by (F0, F1 and F2) respectively, while nano iron was sprayed with concentrations (0, 10 and 20 mg L-1) and it was represented by (NF0, NF1 and NF2) respectively. A randomized complete block design was used to conduct a factorial experimental (RCBD). The results showed that spraying treatments with normal iron, especially at concentration F2 (100 mg L-1) contributed to achieving best results for the characteristics (plant height, number of branches, leaf area, dry weight of the shoot, chlorophyll content of leaves, flowers number, dry weight, flower diameter, number of days until flower wilt) and reached (12.92 cm, 6.39 plant branch-1, 891.73 cm2 plant-1, 6.73 g, 12.98 mg g-1, 191.20 flower plant-1, 69.3 g, 9.20 cm, and 7.18 day) respectively. While the spraying with normal iron was not significantly affect carbohydrate content of the leaves. Spraying with nano iron, especially at NF2 concentration (20 mg L-1) achieved the highest values for the traits of plant height, number of branches, leaf area, shoot dry weight, chlorophyll content of leaves, carbohydrate content of leaves, flowers number, dry weight of flowers, number of days until flower wilt, and reached 12.67 cm, 52.6 plant branches-1, 854.43 cm2 plant-1, 6.60 g, 12.64 mg g-1, 07.9%, 182.94 flower plant-1, 3.32 g, and 6.61 days respectively. While the flower diameter was not significantly affected when spraying with nano iron. On the other hand, the interaction between two study factors showed a significant effect for all the studied traits except for the carbohydrate content of the leaves.