Studying the efficiency of irrigation with marine algae and spraying with some plant extracts on growth, productivity and quality of eggplant

Abstract

The eggplant plant, the Baladi cultivar of eggplant, was planted in the city of Kiswa in the Damascus countryside governorate during the agricultural season 2018-2019 in order to study the effect of irrigation efficiency with seaweed (0, 2, 4 ml/l), and spraying with plant extracts licorice root, fenugreek seeds, anise seeds, Nigella seeds, hibiscus leaves, and nettle leaves (4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2 g/l, respectively).  The experiment was designed according to a randomized complete block design.  The readings were taken related to morphological (plant height, leaf area), productivity (average weight of the fruit, average yield of the plant) and biochemical (total soluble solids (TSS) percentage in fruits, concentration of anthocyanin pigment in the fruit peel).  The solutions were also prepared in the evening on the day before each spray, so that they were sprayed in the morning.

The results showed that the treatment of irrigation with seaweed-containing fertilizer at a concentration of 4 ml/L led to a significant increase in all studied indicators.  The production reached (3.81 kg/m2) compared to the control (2.41 kg/m2).  As for the effect of the extracts, the extracts of nettle and hibiscus leaves (2, 2 g/l, respectively) gave the best results significantly compared to the rest of the extracts, where the plant height was (119.60 and 114.70 cm, respectively) for plant height compared to the control (81.98 cm).  Also, treatments with extracts of fenugreek seeds, black cumin seeds, and licorice roots showed a significant superiority compared to anise seed extract and the control. The values ​​were recorded (231.22, 220.03, 208.98 cm2, respectively) for the leaf area compared to the control (162.13 cm2).