Mais Daher(1) Majd Darwish*(1) and Sawsan Haifa(2)
(1). Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia. Syria.
(2). Department of Soil and Land Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Dr. Majd Darwish. Lattakia. Syria. E-mail: majds26@yahoo.com).
Received: 12/02/2019 Accepted: 25/03/2019
Abstract
The experiment was carried out at a greenhouse in the Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, during the agricultural season 2018, by the cultivation of the sweet corn (Zea mays var. Saccharata) grains (Merit hybrid) in plastic pots that were distributed according to randomized complete design with six pots per treatment. The research aimed to study the effect of plant spray with the gibberellic acid (15 and 30 ppm), balanced fertilizer (NPK) (10 g/L), and both gibberellic acid and balanced fertilizer on some growth, productivity and quality characteristics of sweet-corn-hybrid under salt stress conditions (4, 8 and 12) dS/cm. The saline stress, especially at 8 and 12 dS/cm levels, negatively affected the growth of sweet corn plants that led to decrease in fresh ears yield (g/plant) with reduced kernels protein content. The treatment of balanced fertilization NPK did not show any significant effects (P˃0.05) on the growth and productivity of plant; while the spray with gibberellic acid showed positive effects on most of morphological, physiological and productivity (fresh ears yield and its components) and quality (total content (%) of soluble sugar and protein) traits of the plants that were growing under control or salt stress conditions. It could be recommended to spray gibberellic acid with 15-30 ppm concentrations considering to its observed role in stimulating the growth of Merit hybrid, besides increasing the yield and quality of fresh ears, as well as improving the plants tolerance to saline stress.
Keywords: Sweet corn, Gibberellic acid GA3, Balanced fertilizer (NPK), Salt stress.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF