RESPONSE OF PLANT TO USE THE IMPROVED FOLIAR FERTILIZERS

Abstract

A series of lab and field experiments were carried out to evaluate the possibility of using some substances as adjuvants or mixture can be added to the foliar fertilizer tank for improving foliar fertilizers use efficiency. The suggested substances to use as an adjuvant or adjuvant mixture included six laboratory grades and two commercial adjuvants. Each of the suggested substance was prepared in 10 concentrations treatments, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.25, 1.5, and 2.0 g/l. The effect of each concentration treatments on static surface tension (SST) and static contact angle (SCA) in liquid/glass) and solid plant leaves/interface) were used to evaluate and select the optimum concentration of each substance to use as an adjuvant which had the highest effects on reducing surface tension and contact angle. The suggested adjuvants included Triethanolamine (TEA), liquid soap as surfactants, and glycerin as a humectant, Molasses and Arabic gum (contais l-arabinose, l-rhamnose, and d-glucuronic acid and 1,3-linked β-d-galactopyranosyl) as stickers and urea as a penetrator. Citric acid was used to adjust the pH of the final foliar fertilizer solution to about 7. Camina red color used to make the spray solution clearer in vision. The two commercial adjuvants used as control were Triton B (17% Acrylic polyme+12% Octyl Phenoxy polyethoxyethanol) Rixifilm (25% Sodium laurgle ether sulfate). The Adjmix-D1 and Adjmix-D2 shown the best performance in reducing surface tension of aqueous solution at the lowest concentrations and exhibited the highest efficiency. Spray retention on leaves of some vegetable crops. White eggplant leaves had the higher amount of spray