Growth, Yield and Quality of Two Globe Artichoke Cultivars as Affected by Gibberellic Acid, Naphthalene Acetic Acid, Benzyle Amino Purine and Seaweed Extract

Abstract

Two field experiments were carried out during the two successive seasons (2016 - 2017 and 2017- 2018), in a private Farm, at Seedy Ghazi- Kafr El Dawar, Behiera Governorate, Egypt. The objectives of this work are to evaluate the outcomes of using gibberellic acid (30 and 60 ppm), naphthalene acetic acid (25 and 50 ppm),6-N benzyl adenine purine (20 and 30 ppm) and seaweed extract (1 and 2 g / L) on growth, yield and quality of globe artichoke cv. 'French' and 'Balady' under Behiera Governorate environment. The obtained results of the two seasons revealed that French cultivar showed higher mean values of plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, number of branches, fresh and dry weight, nitrogen and protein in leaves. However, Balady cultivar showed high values of number of early head / plant and number of early head /feddan, total head / plant, number of total head /feddan, weight of edible part/ plant and potassium in leaves. Spraying artichoke plant suing gibberellic acid, naphthalene acetic acid, N-6-benzyle amino purine and seaweed extract with all concentrations showed significant effect on the almost vegetative growth characteristics, yield and its components and chemical characteristics of leaves with different magnitude compared to control treatment. In this respect, gibberellic acid was superior in the case of vegetative growth and early yield characteristics. However, seaweed extract and 6-N benzyl adenine purine gave the highest mean values of total yield and chemical characteristics of leaves. The combined treatment of Balady cultivar and either seaweed extract at 2 g / L or N-6-benzyle amino purine at 30 ppm recorded the maximum mean values of the studied characters and might be considered as an optimal treatment for the production of high yield and good quality of globe artichoke plants.