The Influence Of Priming Two Cucumber Cultivar Seeds

J. Duhok Univ. Vol.13, No.1, (Agri. And Vet. Sciences) Pp 131-138, 2010
Seeds were sown in 15 th February 2010 at a
distance of 40 cm between plants and 75 cm
between the rows.
A completely randomized block design
(RCBD) was used in this experiment. Each
treatment was replicated three times with eight
plants per each. The factors included the
following; Humic acid (Organic matter 75% and
K2O 10%) at three levels (0.0, 1, 2 g.L -1 ) and
three concentrations of Seaweed extract (sea
force Mgo 3.2%, Mn 1.8%, Zn 2.4%, S 4.88%
and So3 12.2%) (0.0, 2, 3 ml.L -1 ). All plants
under taken in this study received the regular
agricultural and horticultural practices that
usually carried out in the vegetable crops.
Spraying was done twice within ten days intervals,
starting from flower initiation stage. Data were
analyzed by using SAS program (SAS, 2001).
Experimental measurements were as follows:
1 –Vegetative growth characteristics: -
a) Plant height (cm).
b) Leaf chlorophyll content%.
c) Leaf area (cm 2 ).
2- Yield characteristics:-
a) Early yield: fruits of first five harvests from each
treatment were weighted to calculate the early yield
per plant.
b) Total yield: all fruits harvested from each
treatment along the harvesting period were
weighted to calculate the total yield kg/plant and
Ton/ Donum.
c) Fruit number per plant: total fruits harvested
from each treatment along the harvesting period
were divided on the plants numbers of treatments
to calculate the fruit number/ plant.
3- Fruit quality characteristics: Ten fruits
from each treatments were randomly taken for
determining average fruit character as follows:-
a) 1-Fruit weight (g).
b) 2- Fruit length (cm).
c) 3- Fruit chlorophyll content%.
d) 4- Fruit dry weight (g)
e) Total soluble solid (TSS) %
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1- Vegetative growth characteristics: Table (1)
shows that spraying Humic acid with a
concentration of 2 g.L -1 caused significant
increased in leaf area and leaves chlorophyll
content compared with control treatment. The
highest average of leaf area and leaves
chlorophyll content resulted from spraying with
a concentration of 2 g.L -1 humic acid, where it
reached to (385.49 cm 2 and 47.12%) as
compared with the lowest values (339.64 cm 2
and 43.13%) respectively at control treatment.
While had no significant effects on plant height.
Concerning the Seaweed extract, the results
of the same table shows that the preferred
spraying with a concentration of (2 and 3 ml.
L -1 ), has a significant preference compared with
control treatment. While there were not
significant differences between these two levels,
the highest leaf area, leaves chlorophyll content
and plant height(389.10 cm 2 , 46.80% and 339.00
cm) respectively resulted from spraying with a
concentration of (3 ml.L -1 ) in comparison with
the lowest values at control treatment.
For the interaction between Humic acid and
Seaweed, there is a real effect shown in table (1)
from the interaction between 2 g.L -1 Humic acid
and 3 ml.L -1 Seaweed was significant in its effect,
the plants of this interaction characterized by the
highest values of (397.62 cm 2 , 47.70% and 345.33
cm) respectively. This enhancement in the
characteristics of the vegetative growth may attribute
to the increase of uptake of macro and
microelements influenced by Humic substances
which have been reported in different plant species
(Chen and Aviad, 1990). In addition it was stated
the coal-Humic fertilizers activated the
biochemical processes in plants (Respiration,
Photosynthesis and chlorophyll content)
(Abolina and Tashkhadzhaev, 1968).
Furthermore, the growth promoting that activity
of humic substances was found to be caused by
plant hormone-like material contained in the
Humic substances (Donnell 1973), or may be to the
presence of iron in the Humic acids or their
colloidal nature have a positive effect on the
growth of various groups of microorganisms
which may excrete a range of vitamins, growth
substances and antibiotics and these may
promote plant growth (Zhang and Schmidt, 2000,
Zhang et al. 2003a, Zhang et a.l 2003b, Zhang and
Ervin 2004 and Hafez 2004). These results are in
agreement with those obtained by (Manuel et al.
1991. Onder et al. 2004, Giuseppe et al. 2006 and
Ali et al. 2008).
Also the increases in vegetative growth
characteristics might be due to the Auxins
content in the Seaweed extracts which have an
effective role in cell division and enlargement, this
leads to increase the growth of plants (Gollan and
Wright 2006). This extracts contain Cytokinins as
well in which induce the physiological activities
and increase the total chlorophyll in the plant.
This will positively reflects on the activity of
photosynthesis and the synthesized materials
which will positively reflects on vegetative
growth characteristics (Thomas, 1996).