Effect of Mineral, Organic Nitrogen Fertilization and Some Other Treatments on vegetative growth of Picual Olive Young Trees

Abstract

This study was carried out through two successive seasons (2007& 2008) on Klamata olive young trees grown at the Research Station Farm of National Research Center, El Nobarya, El Behera governorate. The investigation aimed to study the effect of applying mineral, organic fertilizers and some other treatments on growth parameters at the first two years of planting. Planting holes were prepared for control plants in the first season only. Each treatment received 100 g actual nitrogen/plant/year as recommended by M.A.R.L. (2007). The following treatments were applied: T1 : control (mineral nitrogen + planting hole preparation), T2(100%mineral nitrogen), T3(100% organic N as cattle manure), T4(50% mineral N + 50% organic N as chicken manure), T5 (100%mineral nitrogen + humic acid as soil application), T6(100% mineral nitrogen + activated dry yeast as soil application), T7 (100%mineral nitrogen + GA3 spray) and T8 (100% mineral nitrogen + sea algae as soil application).At the end of each season, plant height, stem diameter, lateral shoot number, lateral shoot length, leaves numbers per plant, percentage of plant height increment, whole plant dry weight were determined and recorded. The obtained results revealed that plant height, shoots number, shoot length, leaves number and stem diameter were not affected by different treatments. However the fifth treatment with humic acid and seventh treatment with GA3 spray gave highest significant values of leaf numbers per plant compared with all other treatments in the first season, but in the second one, the differences among treatments lake significance. As for Whole plant dry weight, no significant differences among treatments could be noticed in both seasons.