Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Soils Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
2
Mansoura university
3
Soils dept. Faculty of agriculture Mansoura University , Elmansoura, Egypt
Abstract
The widespread application of conventional chemical fertilizers has led to various environmental issues, including reduced food quality, soil degradation, and harm to beneficial soil organisms. Conversely, the use of Nano-fertilizers holds promise as a potential solution to address these challenges. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of supplementing small quantities of Nano-fertilizers in conjunction with conventional NPK fertilizers to reduce the overall volume of traditional fertilizers when cultivating spinach plants. Moreover, the performance of micro Nano fertilizers (Fe, Zn) with spinach plants was assessed in comparison to the performance of chelated fertilizers. A split-plot experimental design was utilized, consisting of twenty treatments with three replicates, which were the simple possible combination between four NPK additions as main plots and five foliar applications of Fe and Zn as sub main factor. Main factor treatments were T1: 100% recommended dose of NPK as traditional bulk form,T2: 75% recommended dose of NPK as traditional bulk form + 15% recommended dose of NPK as Nano form,T3: 50% recommended dose of NPK as traditional bulk form + 15% recommended dose of NPK as Nano form andT4: 25% recommended dose of NPK as Nano form. While, the sub main factor treatments were F1: Control (without foliar),F2: Fe- Nano (10mg L-1, Fe2O3 Nanoparticles), F3: Zn- Nano (10mg L-1, ZnO Nanoparticles), F4: Fe- EDTA (100mg L-1 using Fe -EDTA 6% Fe) and F5: Zn- EDTA (100mg L-1 using Zn -EDTA 6%Zn). The T2 treatment emerged as the most effective in achieving the highest values for all the all the measured parameters such as plant height (cm), fresh and dry weights (g plant-1), leaf area (cm2 plant-1) and yield (ton ha-1) of spinach plants at the harvest stage. It was followed closely by the T3 treatment . In contrast, the T1 treatment ranked third after both T3 and T2. Lastly, the T4 treatment was found to have the least impact on these growth parameters and yield. Fe treatments exhibited greater effectiveness when compared to the Zn treatments. Furthermore, the data demonstrate that the Nano form exhibited greater effectiveness when compared to the chelated form in the context of both Fe and Zn treatments. Generally, it can be noticed that the F2 treatment was the superior for obtaining the maximum values for the most of studied traits. Therefore, it is recommended that farmers and agricultural practitioners consider adopting this approach to optimize crop performance while minimizing the environmental impact of conventional chemical fertilizers.
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