Microbiology Research - Academic Journals

5106 Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.
that vegetative growth, data affected by foliar compounds
which in turn increased carbohydrate, cell division and
enlargement leading to more yield.
Generally, data indicated that different nutrient compounds
favored the increase of vegetative and productive
growth as well as yield and components of potato plants
(Tables 3 and 4). The changes in the level of mineral
nutrition of the above ground organs of plant are not
attributed to the foliar absorption itself but to the effect of
nutrients uptake by root system (Shereverga, 1959)
The results is supported by Abd- El-Hadi et al. (1998),
on wheat, potato and sugar cane, El-Tohamy et al.
(2007) on Snap beans and Hussein et al. (2008) on
Fodder beet plants, they reported that foliar spray of
micronutrients enhanced growth and increased the dry
matter accumulation in different crops. The content of
crude protein, monosugars, starch, carbohydrate, total
soluble solids (T.S.S) and L. Ascorbic acid in plant tubers
were significantly increased by using the three different foliar
nutritional compounds comparing with the control treatment
(Table 4), the highest values of the chemical composition
were obtained by applying folifertile, Byfolan, fetrilon combi
in decreasing order respectively.
The superiority of folifertile to other nutritional compounds is
due to its higher content of macro and micronutrients
especially nitrogen and suphur (Table 2), nitrogen may have
affect on the uptake and photosynthetic surface, through
increasing the number of cells / leaf and number of leaves /
plant (El-Baz, 1967). Also, Dancs et al. (2008) indicated that
sulphur could increase methionine content of tubers by coexpressing
a gene involved in methionine synthesis, led to
rich of storage protein in potato tubers.
It seems that when foliar nutritionals were used, the
photosynthetic activity was stimulated, leading to
enhancement of chemical constituents as crude protein,
starch, carbohydrate, L-ascorbic acid and T.S.S in shoots
which were afterwards translocated to the tubers. These
effects may also due to the presence of micronutrients in
the foliar compounds as Zn, Cu, Mn and B. Abou-Zied
(1979) concluded that trace elements of folifertile might
be mediated via the enzymatic systems responsible for
biosynthetic apparatus, and thus rising sugars and
nitrogen in intact plants. Furthermore, El-Bassiony et al.
(2006) concluded that spraying sweet pepper plants with
mixture of Fe, Mn and Zn led to increase in ascorbic acid
(vitamin c), total acidity and as compared with the control
treatment.
Effect of interaction between NPK levels and foliar
compounds
The interaction between the NPK levels and the foliar
nutritional compounds significantly affected weight of
tubers/plant and percentage of mono sugars, carbohydrate
and L-ascorbic acid, but did not affect other parameters of
yield as well as the chemical constituents of potato plants
(Table 4). The highest values of yield parameters and
chemical constituents were obtained when the highest level
of NPK was applied and sprayed potato plants with folifertile
compound, while the lowest values were attained by using
the lowest NPK level and sprayed plants with tap water.
Nutrients content in potato shoots and tubers at
harvest
Effect of NPK levels
Data recorded in Table (5) indicated that all the studied
nutrients in shoots and tubers of potato plants
significantly increased with different levels of the added
NPK levels. The highest level of NPK application gave
the highest values of macro (N, P and K) as well as
micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) as compared with the
medium and lowest levels of NPK. In this connection
Abdalla (2002) found that N, protein, P and K contents of
faba bean leaves were increased by increasing P level
from 100 to 200 kg superphosphate/Fed.
Results are in agreement with those obtained by
Moustafa et al. (2005), El-Ghamring and Saeed (2007 a,
b) and Kamel, et al. (2008) who stated that increasing
NPK levels significantly increased nutrients content and
uptake of sugar beet, potato and wheat plants
respectively. Also, Rohily et al. (2010) found that leaf
nutrient concentrations were at or above the optimum
levels for high yield, their study insured that, soil
application rates of NPK at pre-planting were sufficient to
produce an economical potato yield.
Generally macro and micronutrients in potato tubers
were much lower than those obtained in potato shoots. In
this case Abdel-Fattah et al. (2001) showed that the concentrations
of P, K, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cd and Co in
potato tubers were much lower than that in vegetative
part especially after 90 days from planting.
Effect of foliar compounds
Data presented in Table (5) reveal that macro (N, P and
K) and micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) content in
both vegetative shoots and tubers of potato plants at
harvest were significantly higher by applying different
foliar compounds than that of control treatment, except,
nitrogen content in shoots and tubers as well as Cu
content in shoots which their increase did not attain the
level of significance at 5%. Highest values of N, P, K and
Cu in shoots and tubers of potato plants were obtained
by using folifertile as compared with other treatments. On
the other hand the highest content of Fe, Mn and Zn, in
shoots and tubers were attained by using fetrilon combi
followed by folifertile, Byfolane and control in decreasing
order. In this concern, Ahmed et al. (1998) stated that
spraying macro and/or micro nutrients significantly