Response of Potato Plant Grown on Sandy Soil to Banana Residues and Rice Straw Composts with External Application of Boron and Molybdenum
Mohamed A. Soliman *
Soil Sciences Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta University, 34517, Egypt.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Reclamation of poor sandy soils is within the Egyptian state's plan for horizontal expansion to achieve food security to counter population increase during the coming decades. So, a field trial was performed aiming to evaluate two types of compost i.e., banana compost and rice straw compost at a rate of 10.0 ton fed-1 for all of them as the main factor on the growth performance, quantitative and qualitative yield of the potatoes plant. While the exogenous application of some beneficial elements i.e., control (without foliar application), boron element (60.0 mg L-1) alone, molybdenum element (60.0 mg L-1) alone and combined addition of both (B + Mo at a rate of 30.0 mg L-1 for both) represented the subplots. The obtained findings show that the maximum values of growth criteria such as plant height, fresh and dry weights, chlorophyll content and leaves chemical composition (N, P, K and B) a period of 80 days from planting as well as the highest values of the quantitative and qualitative yield of the potato plant e.g., the average weight of one tuber, No. of tuber plant-1, yield, total carbohydrates, total sugars, dry matter and vitamin C were realized with the banana compost treatment, while the lowest ones were realized with the plants treated with rice straw compost. Also, the highest values of all aforementioned traits were recorded with the combined treatment of B + Mo followed by treatment of B alone and then treatment of Mo alone, while the control treatment (without foliar application) came in the last order. Noting that the accumulation of nitrate was reduced due to Mo element. Thus, the best growth performance, quantitative and qualitative yield of the potato plant was recorded under the combined treatment of banana compost x B element (30.0 mg L-1) x Mo element (30.0 mg L-1). Generally, it can be concluded that the banana compost and rice straw compost besides foliar application of B and Mo will lead to the achievement of sustainability in the newly reclaimed soils of Egypt.
Keywords: Molybdenum, boron, compost and potato plants