Effect of bio-fertilizers and ascobene on growth and flowering of Iris tingitana Cv. Wedgwood L. plants

This study was carried out at the Expermental.Nursery of the Ornamental. Hort., Dept. Fac of Agric.,Cairo Univ. Giza,during two seasons of 2000/2001 and 2001/2002,to investigate the effect of bio-fertilizers and ascobene on growth, flowering and chemical composition of Iris tingitana cv.Wedgwood, L.The bulbs were planted on October 14th 2000 in 30 cm.clay pots filled with a mixture of clay/sand (2:1 v/v) (3 bulbs/pot).Bio-fertilizer solutions of Azospirillium lipoferum and Bacillus megatherium , phosphorene , nitrobacterene and rizobacterene as well as biostmulant ascobene were applied to plants after two months from the planting and then (twice) at 21 days intervals as a soil drench. The results revealed that using phosphorene and ascobene were the best treatments for increasing the plant height. Treating Iris plants with biofertilizers significantly increased the formation of leaves dry weight of plants and the inflorescence stem diameter and length as well as fresh weight of inflorescence. Treating plants with Bacillus megatherium , phosphorene as well as ascobene significantly increased the dry weight of inflorescence. The treatment of Bacillus megatherium and Azospirillum lipoferum proved the superiority for producing the largest bulbs, bulb lets and fresh weight of bulbs. Whereas, phosphorene,Azospirillum lipoferum and rizobacterene had a favorable effect on increasing the dry weight of bulbs. The treatment of Bacillus megatherium , rizobacterene as well as ascobene produced the highest content of chlorophylls.All biofertilizers increased N-percentage in leaves and bulbs. Treating the plants with rizobacterene, nitrobacterene, Azospirillum lipoferum or Bacillus megatherium increased P percentage in bulbs. Most of the biofertilizer treatments increased K content in bulbs. The treatment of nitrobacterene and phosphorene resulted in a great increase in the percentage of total carbohydrates content in leaves and bulbs.