Improved Growth and Yield Response of Jew’s Mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) Plants through Biofertilization under Semi-Arid Climate Conditions in Egypt
2020
Ahmed Fathy Yousef | Mohamed Ahmed Youssef | Muhammad Moaaz Ali | Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim | Yong Xu | Rosario Paolo Mauro
This study was conducted to comparatively assess the effects of fertilization typology (organic, inorganic, and biofertilization) on the growth, yield, and compositional profile of Jew&rsquo:s mallow. The experiment was carried out over two growing seasons, under semi-arid climate conditions on silty loam soil. We adopted three fertilization strategies: (1) inorganic NPK fertilizer (146, 74, and 57 kg ha&minus:1 for N, P2O5, and K2O, respectively), (2) farmyard manure (36 m3 ha&minus:1), and (3) a biofertilizer (a set of mixed cultures of Bacillus spp., Candida spp., and Trichoderma spp. at 36 L ha&minus:1). Treatment combinations were control (without fertilization, T1), NPK fertilizer (T2), farmyard manure (FYM, T3), biofertilizer (T4), NPK+biofertilizer (T5), and FYM+biofertilizer (T6). The T5 treatment maximized both plant and leaf biomass (up to 31.6 and 8.0 t ha&minus:1, respectively), plant height (68.5 cm), leaf area (370 cm m&minus:2), leaf protein content (18.7%), as well as N, P, and K concentration in leaves (2.99, 0.88, and 2.01 mg 100 g&minus:1, respectively). The leaves&rsquo: weight incidence was lower in T5 treatment (36.7%) as compared to the unfertilized plants (T1). The results revealed that the combined application of inorganic NPK plus biofertilizer is most beneficial to increase growth, yield, and nutrient accumulation in Jew&rsquo:s mallow plants.
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