RESPONSE OF CYCAS REVOLUTA THUNB. TRANSPLANTS TO SOME BIO, ORGANIC AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZATION

Abstract

This experiment was performed in the greenhouse at the nursery of the Ornamental Plants Res. and Landscape Dep., Hort. Res. Inst., ARC., Giza, Egypt through two successive seasons (2010 and 2011) to investigate the response of Cycas revoluta Thunb to inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and Actosol (Acto.) either solely or in a combined mixture as a bio and organic fertilizer in comparison to mineral fertilization (NPK). The obtained results revealed that fertilization treatments significantly stimulated most of the studied characters compared to control. The inoculation of Cycas with either AM fungi and /or Actosol gave the highest values of vegetative growth parameters [leaves length (cm), width (cm), petiole length (cm), number of leaves and pinnae plant-1, fresh and dry weights of leaves plant-1 (g)] as well as root length, fresh and dry weights. Inoculation with AM fungi followed by Actosol markedly improved chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids and gave the highest total carbohydrates % in leaves. Likewise, all fertilization treatments greatly raised the percentage of N, P and K in the leaves, as reached the maximum by AM fungi. The addition of half dose of mineral fertilization (½ NPK) plus the inoculation with either AM fungi or Actosol were the best compared to full dose NPK solely for all studied parameters of Cycas plant. In general, the dominance in all previous measurements was for AM fungi followed by Actosol+ AM fungi which gave the highest values in most cases.