Scientific Papers Series B Horticulture

and total number of tubers per plant (AbdulRasool et al., 2010).The present investigation aimed to study theresponse of 7 Potato cultivars to the number offoliar fertilizer sprays.MATERIALS AND METHODSA field experiment was carried out on a farm15 km south of Hilla, during 2009 to study theeffect of spraying numbers (0, 2 and 4) ofAlaska foliar fertilizer (N:12, P 2 O 5 : 12, K 2 O:36, Fe: 0.05%, Cu: 0.005%, Mn: 0.03%, Zn:0.01%, B: 0.02%, Mo: 0.003%) on 7 potatovarieties (Draga, Aladin, Elpaso, Kurado,Diseree, Provento, and Red Brown) obtainedfrom Nahar Alawrad Company. Factorialexperiment included 21 treatments arrangementin Random Complete Bloke Design (RCBD)with 4 replications.Potato seed Tubers were sown on 6 Feb. at 25cm apart in the rows. Each plot consisted of 3rows, each of five meters in length and 70 cmwide. The plot area was 10.5 m. DAP fertilizerwas added at the rate of 200 kg/ha dressing 10cm bellow the tubers. The first foliar spray wasmade after 40 days, in which plants wereblossoming and were at the early tuber setstage. The other foliar sprays were made atweakly intervals. Plant length (cm), number ofshoots was determined at 90 days afterplanting. At harvesting (21 May), fresh tuberyield were recorded in terms of number oftubers per plant and tuber weight as well astotal yield.The obtained data were subjected to theanalysis of variance procedure and treatmentmeans were compared to the L.S.D. testaccording to Steel and Torrie, 1980.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONSData presented in (Table 1) showed that, lengthof potato plants were significantly increased asa result of plant spraying with Alaska fertilizercompared with the control treatment. Inaddition, there were no significant differencesbetween 2 or 4 foliar times of sprays. Theincreases in plant height may be due to the roleof such macro and micro nutrients in thephysiological process and cell division andelongation which indirectly affect tissueformation and consequently vegetative growth78of plant. These results are in good accordancewith those obtained by (Khalifa et al., 2003;Abdul Rasool et al., 2010; Kadum, 2011).The varieties had a significant effect in plantheight. It appeared that it was related to type ofvarious varieties, (Tafi et al., 2010). Theinteraction had a significant effect also.Table 1. Effect of Varieties and Foliar High-K FertilizerNumber on Plant Height (cm)Average 4 time 2 timevar. spray spraycontrol Var.64.3 68 66 59 Draga56.3 63 56 50 Aladin65.7 67 68 62 Elpaso55.7 62 59 46 Kurado62.7 69 68 51 Diseree65.0 69 72 54 Provento56.3 61 59 49 Red BrownAverage of- 65.6 64 53sprayL.S.D. 0.05 var. = 3.1 fertilizer = 2.03 interactions = 5.37Results in (Table 2) showed that foliar fertilizerhad no significant effect on stem numbers.Potato varieties had a significant effect on stemnumbers, and Elpaso had the largest than othercultivars, it gave 4.6 stem which reachedsignificant only with Aladin that gave 4.0cm.In fact the stem numbers are formed afterplanting and before adding foliar fertilizer andcannot affect by it. It can be mentioned that thestem number in different cultivars is as one ofthe internal and compatible characteristicsaffected by the plant environmental condition(Henricksen and Molgaard, 2005).Table 2. Effect of Varieties and Foliar High-K FertilizerNumber on Stem NumbersAverage 4 time 2 timevar. spray spraycontrol Var.4.27 4.2 4.4 4.2 Draga4.00 4.2 4.1 3.7 Aladin4.60 4.7 4.7 4.4 Elpaso4.27 4.3 4.1 4.4 Kurado4.17 4.4 4.2 3.9 Diseree4.30 4.3 4.6 4.0 Provento4.17 4.2 3.9 4.1 Red BrownAverage of- 4.3 4.3 4.1sprayFoliar fertilizer caused an increase in tuberweight as compared with control (Table 3).Four times of foliar fertilizer had no significanteffect on this parameter as compared with two