Ozean Journal of Applied Sciences 3(1), 2010 Ozean Journal of Applied Sciences 3(1), 2010 ISSN 1943-2429 2010

0 Ozean Publication

Response of vegetative growth and chemical constituents of Schefflera arboricola L. plant to foliar application of inorganic fertilizer (grow-more) and ammonium nitrate at Nubaria.
Mona, H. Mahgoub *, El-Quesni, Fatma E.M., and Magda,M. Kandil Department of Ornamental plant and Woody trees, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt *E-mail address for correspondence: azza856@yahoo.com

________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: A pot experiment was carried out during 2007 and 2008 seasons at Research and Production Station, Nubaria of National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt to study the response of Schefflera plants to foliar fertilizer (Grow-more at the rates of 0.0, 1.0 cm3/L and 2.0 cm3/L) and ammonium nitrate at the rate of (0, 100 and 200 kg) and their interaction on vegetative growth expressed as plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh and dry weight of (leaves, roots and stem) and chemical composition significantly affected by application of the two factors which were used in this study.Grow-more and nitrogen fertilizer promoted all morphological characters, photosynthetic pigments, protein %, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium., Keywords: Schefflera arboricola,Grow-more,ammonium nitrate __________________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION Schefflera arboricola L. is flowering plant in the family araliaceae, native to Tiwan and Hainan. It is also goes by the common name "Dwarf umbrella tree". It is an evergreen shrub growing to 3-4 m height, often trailing stems scrambing over other vegetation. The leaves are palmately compound, with 7-9 leaflets, the leaflets 9-20 cm long and 4-10 cm broad (though often smaller in cultivation). The flowers are produced in a 20 cm pancil of small umbels, each umbel 7-10 mm diameter with 5-10 flowers. It is commonly grown as houseplant, popular for its tolerance of neglect and poor growing condition. Numerous cultivars have been selected for variation in leaf colour and pattern, often variegated with creamy-white to yellow edges or centers, and dwarf forms. Scheffleras are delicate tropical plants often used to decorate public places, such as lobbies, shopping malls and waiting rooms. Smaller Scheffleras are better studied for homes and small offices. Uphof(1959). Inorganic fertilizers are the elements needed in small amounts, they are often refers to as micronutrients (Kohnke 1995) these elements are chlorine (Cl), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mg), Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Molybdenum (Mo), Nickel (Ni) and Cobalt (Co) most of these elements are derived from the soil and organic sources (Brady and Weil 2000). Micronutrients are also essential for organization and rapid alternation of nutrition compound within plant owing to their great importance in contribution to direct the enzymes way in metabolism Massoud et al (2005). Therefore, both granular and fluid (liquid) NPK fertilizers are commonly used as carriers of micronutrients including micronutrients with mixed fertilizer which is a convenient method of application and allows more uniform distribution with conventional application equipment. Micronutrients are essential for plant growth, but are required in much smaller amounts than those of the primary nutrients Brady and Weil (2000). Nitrate and ammonium are the major source of inorganic nitrogen taken up by the roots of higher plants. Most of ammonium has to be incorporated into organic compounds in the roots whereas nitrate

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is readily mobile in the xylem and can also be stored in the vacules of roots, shoots and storage organs. Nitrate accumulation can be considerable importance for cation-anion balance, for osmoregulation, particularly in so-called nitrophilie species such as Chenopodium album and Urtica dioica (Smirnoff and Stewart, 1985). Dahiya et al (2001) mentioned that further increments in nitrogen level, up to 180 ppm, adversely affected growth and dry matter yield of tuberose. While Pal and Biswas (2000) found that the lower doses of fertilizer produced poor quality plant and yield of flower and best results were found when tuberose were fertilized N, P and K at the level of 15, 15, 20 g/m2, respectively. Also Paradhan et al (2004) noticed that combined application of N at 40 g/m2 and K at 30 g/m2 gave the highest values of plant height, number of leaves /plant, leaf area, spike length and number of flowers/spike. Mahgoub et al (2006) studied the effect of the nitrogen levels 30, 40, 50 and 60 g/m2 as ammonium nitrate (33.5 % N) and the level of 25, 30, 35 and 40 g/m2 as potassium sulfate (48 % K2O). They found that Iris bulbs showed higher values for plant height, fresh and dry weight of leaves (40 g N + 30 g K /m2) N level up to 60 g/m2 showed stimulatory effect on chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids, 60 g N/m2 increased carbohydrate percentage in the presence of 30 g /m2 K, (40 g N/m2 + 25 g K /m2) recorded high values of N, P and K in Iris leaves. The aim of this work is to study the response of Schefflera arboricola plants to foliar fertilizer of Grow-more and nitrogen fertilizer and their interactions on growth and some chemical composition.

MATERIALS AND METHODS The experiments was conducted at Research and Production Station of National Research Centre at Nubaria during two successive seasons 2007 and 2008 to investigate the response of Schefflera arboricola plant to foliar fertilizer micro nutrients and nitrogen fertilizer (ammonium nitrate 33.5 %) on growth and some chemical composition. On the third week of February 2007 and 2008 seasons, vegetative uniform cutting (20-24 cm length) were taken from Schefflera arboricola plant, cutting were treated for a minute with 1000 mg/L indole butric acid before planting in pots to enhance rooting. Rooted cuttings were planted in black plastic pots (10 cm) in diameter (one plant /pot) and grown in shaded green house media formulated by combination of peatmoss and sandy soil (1:1, v/v). The seedling were transplanted on 20th April 2007 and 2008 seasons, in plastic pot (30 cm) in diameter filled with 10 kg of peatmoss and sandy soil (1:1, v/v) arranged in a complete randomized design with three replicates. Each replicate consists of three plants. Water requirements were relative humidity maintained between 45-65%, allow the surface of potting media to dry slightly before irrigation. Each pot was fertilized twice with 1.5 g nitrogen as ammonium nitrate (33.5% N) and 1.0 g potassium sulphate (48.5 % K2O). The fertilizers were applied at 30 and 60 days after transplanting. Phosphorus as calcium superphosphate (15.5 % P2O5) was mixed with soil before transplanting at a rate of 3.0 g/ pot. Other agricultural processes were performed according to normal practice. Plants were sprayed with different concentration of foliar fertilizer (Gropw-more) Table (1) which produced by Ajemco International company at the rate of (0.0, 1.0 and 2.0 cm3/L). Nitrogen as ammonium nitrate was fertilized with (0, 100 and 200 kg), interaction of the two factors had been also carried out, in addition to untreated plants (control) which were sprayed with tap water. Foliar application of Grow-more and nitrogen was carried out two times of 30 days intervals starting at 20 July at both seasons. The experiments were sat in completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replicates and two factors. The following data were recorded on 1st week of December 2007 and 2008 season, the recorded data were plant height (cm), stem diameter (mm), No. of leaves, leaf area (cm2) of 4 and 5 base leaves, fresh and dry weight of plant organs (gm). Photosynthetic pigments i.e. chlorophyll (a, b and carotenoids) were determined exactly 0.1 gm of fresh leaves of schefflera plant using the Spectrophotometric method developments by Metzzner et al (1965). Total nitrogen was determined by Chapman and Pratt (1961), while phosphorus determination carried out Colorimtrically according to King (1951). Potassium was determined photometrically by flam photometer method as described by Brown and Lillan (1946). Data obtained were subjected to standard analysis of variance procedure, the values of LSD were obtained whenever F value were significantly as 5% levels reported by Snedecor and Cochran (1980).

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Growth characters: Data in Table (2) show that foliar application of Grow-more at the concentration of 1.0 and 2.0 cm3/L on schefflera plants significantly increased all growth parameters plant height (cm), No. of leaves, fresh and dry weight of plant organs (gm), root and stem (gm), stem diameter and leaf area (cm2) than the untreated plants, the highest values of previous characters were found when plants treated with 2.0 cm3/L of grow-more followed by 1.0 cm3/L. These results are agreement with El-Fouly (2001) who noticed that the number of leaves and leaf area of sunflower plants were increased by addition of Fe, Mn, Zn, root size was increased by addition of Fe and Mn only. Rabie et al (2002) reported that foliar fertilizer containing N, P, K, Fe, Mn and Zn pronounced increases in dry weight, macro and micronutrients content of sorghum plants than control plants. Negm and Zahran (2001) found that, foliar application of micronutrients had the significant effect on increasing wheat grain and straw yields; yield attributes (plant height, spike length and 1000 grains weight). El -Quesni et al (2009) mentioned that using inorganic fertilizers at the concentrations of 1.0 and 2.0 cm3/L on syngonium plants increased plant height, stem diameter, No. of leaves/plant, leaf area and fresh and dry weight of roots and leaves. These results may be due to micronutrient boron which helps transport vital sugars through plant membranes and promotes proper cell division, cell wall formation and development, also due to zinc which promotes seed/grain formation, plant maturity, acts as enzyme activator in protein, hormone (i.e. IAA) and RNA / DNA synthesis and metabolism. Chlorine also indirectly affects plant growth by stomatal regulation of water loss. Molybdenum has a significant effect on pollen formation, so fruit and grain formation are affected by molybdenum deficient plants. With regard to the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on schefflera plants data in Table (2) illustrated that using nitrogen fertilizer at the rate of 100 kg gave significant increases than control plants. 200 kg nitrogen gave the highest values in all growth parameters under study compared with control plants. These results are in agreement with Ramesh et al (2002) they mentioned that plant height increased with increasing the rate of nitrogen. In this respect, Paradahan et al (2004) on gladiolus c.v. red mention that 4 g/m2 N plus K fertilizer at the rate of 30 g/m2 recorded highest value of number, fresh and dry weight of leaves as plant height . As regarding the interaction treatments, foliar application micronutrients and nitrogen fertilizer, the data show that significantly increased all growth characters under study. The highest values of growth characters were obtained by grow-more 2.0 cm3/L combined with ammonium nitrate at the rate of 200 kg /fed followed by grow-more 2.0 cm3/L and N at the rate of 200 kg/fed. Data emphasized the interaction effect were significantly affected all growth parameters i.e. plant height (cm), number of leaves, fresh and dry weight of (leaves, root and stem) stem diameter and leaf area of schefflera arboricola L. plants. These results may be due to increasing the nitrogen levels which delays senescence and stimulates growth and also changes plant morphology, particularly if the nitrogen availably is high in the rooting medium during the early growth (Levin et al, 1989; Olsthoorn et al 1991), it presumably related to nitrogen induced changes in the phytohormone balance (Sommer and Six 1982).

Chemical constituents: Synthetic Pigments: Data in Table (3) indicated that spraying schefflera plants with grow-more at the rate of 1.0 cm3/L increasing significantly in chl. a, b and total chlorophyll and decreased in total carotenoids content whereas 2.0 cm3/L gave the highest values in the content of plants from Chl. a, Chl. b, total Chlorophyll and total carotenoids content. These results were agreement with those obtained by Ratanarat et al (1990), El-Quesni et al (2009) they found that the highest values of Chl. a, Chl. b and total carotenoids in syngonium plants increases by increasing the concentration of grow-more up to 2.0 cm3/L. These results may be due to iron, manganese, which promote chlorophyll production and photosynthesis process, copper which helps in chlorophyll formation. With regard to the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on schefflera plants data in Table (3) showed that the two used concentration of N fertilizer increasing Chl. a, b and total Chlorophyll whereas total carotenoids content gave significant increased by using 200 kg N only. These results are agreement with Mahgoub et al (2006) on Iris

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bulbs they mentioned that maximizing the rate of N up to 60 g/m2 showed the stimulatory effect on chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids irrespective of the K fertilizer level. Concerning the effect of interaction on photosynthetic pigments data show that the highest significant values was found in plant treated with 2.0 cm2/L grow-more fertilizer plus 200 kg nitrogen fertilizer followed by 2.0 cm3/L micronutrients and 100 N , respectively. These treatments may be due to positive effect on growth parameters.

Mineral Ions content: Data in Table (3) found that foliar application of grow-more at the concentration of 1.0 and 2.0 cm3/L and nitrogen fertilizer at the rate of 100 and 200 kg increased the total amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium ions content on schefflera plants compared with control plants. These results were agreement with those obtained by Sharma et al (2002) they found that application of organic material either alone or in combination with chemical fertilizers caused substantial increase in total N, available P, K as well as increased wheat and straw yield Mahgoub et al(2006) on Iris bulbs they found that using 40 g/m2 N plus 25 g/m2 K recorded high values of N, P and K in Iris leaves. With regard the effect of interaction in mineral ions content data show that significantly increased N, P and K content of schefflera plants were obtained by grow-more 2 cm3/L combined with 200 kg N followed by grow more 2 cm3/L. Data in Table (3) mentioned that total protein percentage increased by (6.46 and 10.53) when plants treated with 1.0 and 2.0 cm2/L grow-more respectively compared with control plants which recorded (8.68 %). Also nitrogen fertilizer 100 and 200 kg treatments in the total protein increased by (9.68 and 10.09 %) respectively than control plants (8.90 %). The highest recorded data in total protein percentage were (11.21, 10.69 and 10.19) obtained from 2 cm3/L micronutrients plus 200 kg nitrogen fertilizer followed by 2 cm3/L and 200 kg N respectively. These results are in line with those obtained by Negm and Zahran (2001) they mentioned that micronutrients increased protein grain content in wheat plants and El-Quesni et al (2009) on syngonium plants. These increments led to positive effect of growth parameters and enhancing effect on plant metabolism which was regarded as a better indicator for foliage plants.

Table (1) Chemical properties of micronutrients fertilizer grow-more used in this study.

Growmore content %

N2 11

P2O5 6

K2O 8

Fe 0.15

Zn 0.15

Mg 0.14

Ca 0.02

Cu 0.20

S 0.02

B 0.01

Mo 0.01

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Table (2) Effect of micronutrient and nitrogen fertilizer on vegetative growth of schefflera arboricola L. plants. (means of two seasons 2007 and 2008). Plant height cm Effect of micronutrient Control Micro 1 cm3/L Micro 2 cm3/L LSD at 5% level Effect of nitrogen Control N 100 kg N 200 kg LSD at 5% level Effect of interaction Control Micro 1 cm3/L Micro 2 cm3/L N 100 kg N 200 kg Micro 1 cm3/L + N 100 kg Micro 1 cm3/L + N 200 kg Micro 2 cm3/L + N 100 kg Micro 2 cm3/L + N 200 kg LSD at 5% level 32.00 41.38 43.34 40.17 40.67 38.67 36.42 39.25 46.33 2.44 1.11 1.28 1.32 1.26 1.27 1.24 1.20 1.25 1.80 0.11 14.7 3 22.0 2 22.8 3 19.8 3 21.2 8 19.0 0 18.6 6 19.6 7 24.3 2 2.73 6.33 10.2 9 10.6 8 10.0 7 10.2 0 9.39 9.00 9.95 14.3 4 2.66 33.5 4 43.7 4 46.3 8 42.0 0 43.3 3 41.5 5 38.9 0 41.8 3 47.3 0 2.44 12.5 7 20.3 1 21.2 7 19.8 5 20.1 7 18.1 5 17.0 7 19.6 0 23.9 0 2.94 67.0 7 81.6 8 82.3 3 80.3 0 79.6 7 76.2 5 72.8 3 77.6 3 93.9 3 6.39 21.1 2 28.1 7 29.3 3 27.7 8 28.0 7 26.2 1 25.4 2 27.1 7 33.1 5 3.01 28.1 3 40.8 7 41.4 2 39.3 3 39.8 0 35.7 8 33.3 7 37.0 9 45.3 2 3.61 11.0 7 18.0 0 20.1 7 16.9 8 17.0 0 16.5 4 11.0 0 16.6 7 26.5 3 2.56 39.91 39.36 41.10 1.41 1.23 1.25 1.42 0.07 19.8 6 19.5 0 21.4 2 1.58 9.10 9.80 11.1 8 1.54 41.2 2 41.7 9 43.0 9 1.40 18.0 5 19.2 0 20.3 8 1.70 77.0 3 78.0 6 82.1 4 3.69 26.2 0 27.0 5 29.2 1 1.88 30.9 1 37.4 0 39.5 0 2.09 16.4 1 16.7 3 19.8 9 1.48 37.61 33.84 42.97 1.41 1.21 1.24 1.46 0.07 18.6 2 19.9 0 22.2 7 1.58 8.87 9.56 11.6 6 1.54 39.6 2 41.4 0 45.0 8 1.41 17.5 3 36.6 7 41.3 7 2.09 75.6 8 76.9 2 84.6 3 3.69 26.6 6 26.9 3 29.8 8 1.88 35.7 6 36.6 7 41.3 7 2.09 15.0 1 16.8 5 21.1 2 1.48 Stem diam eter mm No.o f leave s Leaf area cm2 F.W of root D.W of root F.W of leave s D.W of leave s F.W of stem D.W of stem

Character Treatments

gm

Micro= micronutrients, F.W.=fresh weight,D.W.=dry weight , N= nitrogen

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Table (3) Effect of micronutrient and nitrogen fertilizer on chemical constituents of schefflera arboricola L. plants. (means of two seasons 2007 and 2008). Chlorophylls Character Treatments Chl. a Chl. b Chl. a+b mg/g Effect of micronutrient Control Micro 1 cm3/L Micro 2 cm3/L LSD at 5% level Effect of nitrogen Control N 100 kg N 200 kg LSD at 5% level Effect of interaction Control Micro 1 cm3/L Micro 2 cm3/L N 100 kg N 200 kg Micro 1 cm3/L + N 100 kg Micro 1 cm3/L + N 200 kg Micro 2 cm3/L + N 100 kg Micro 2 cm3/L + N 200 kg LSD at 5% level 0.52 1.26 1.31 1.22 1.24 1.13 0.96 1.18 1.37 0.15 0.17 0.40 0.43 0.36 0.37 0.31 0.29 0.37 0.47 0.04 0.69 1.66 1.75 1.58 1.61 1.44 1.25 1.50 1.83 0.15 0.09 0.23 0.26 0.21 0.22 0.17 0.13 0.18 0.30 0.03 1.19 1.63 1.67 1.60 1.65 1.47 1.43 1.48 1.70 0.06 0.15 0.32 0.35 0.28 0.30 0.25 0.22 0.26 0.39 0.04 2.50 3.46 4.00 3.63 3.55 3.23 3.10 3.39 4.96 0.56 5.83 10.17 10.69 10.00 10.19 9.35 8.80 9.69 11.21 0.67 1.03 1.18 1.19 0.08 0.33 0.34 0.38 0.02 1.36 1.50 1.57 0.09 0.19 0.19 0.22 0.02 1.51 1.52 1.59 0.03 0.27 0.27 0.30 0.02 3.32 3.42 3.87 0.33 8.90 9.68 10.09 0.39 0.99 1.12 1.29 0.08 0.30 0.33 0.41 0.08 1.29 1.45 1.70 0.09 0.17 0.18 0.25 0.09 1.47 1.52 1.62 0.03 0.25 0.27 0.33 0.02 3.23 3.26 4.12 0.33 8.68 9.46 10.53 0.39 Total caroten oids Mineral ions contents N P % K Total protein

Micro= micronutrients, Chl. Chlorophyll, N= nitrogen

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