EFFECT OF PLANTING MEDIA AND BORON SPRAY ON GROWTH

This study was conducted in Agricultural College/ Dohuk University during the period 1 Sep 2004 and 30 Jun 2005. The objective was to improve the growth of maidenhair plant (Adiantum tenerum 'Scutum Roseum) by selecting a suitable and available media and boron nutrition requirement. Two kinds of media were used, loamy soil : manure, and loamy soil : peat moss (2:1 by volume) and boron foliar application (boric acid) in concentrations (0, 30, 60, 90,120) mg / L. Results showed in vegetative dry weight, root dry weight, leaf length, leaves number for plants growing in peat moss media increased by 25%, 9%, 16%, 28% consecutively comparing with those grown in manure media. While chemical content cannot effected by this factor except nitrogen 4.02% which increased significantly in plants growing in animals manure media. Spray plants with the medium concentration of boron 60 mg/L give highest values which a superiority significant for most of vegetative and chemical characters when comparing with the others and reached 5.71 g, 0.548 g, 44.30 cm, 4.20%, 0.535% for vegetative dry weight, root dry weight, leaf length, nitrogen, and phosphorus consecutively except leaves number when spread with 30 mg/L and boron content 0.140% when spray with highest concentration 120mg/L. Interactions between the two factors have significantly effected all vegetative and chemical characters and highest values obtained when plant grown in peat moss media and sprayed with 60 mg/L and reached 6.08 g, 0.550 g, 47.40 cm, for vegetative dry weight, root dry weight, leaf length, consecutively except leaves number when plant grown in the same media and spread with 30 mg/L while nitrogen and phosphorus gave higher concentration when plants grown in animals manure and sprayed with 60 mg/L as well as boron content 0.153% when spray with highest concentration 120 mg/L. and grown in peat moss media . INTRODUCTION Maidenhair fern (Adiantum tenerum 'Scutum Roseum') is a fine-textured, delicate, and small to medium-sized plant of the perennial, herbaceous which belongs to Adiantaceae family. It is widely distributed through hot regions and rain forests of SouthAmerica, it need a humid and warm atmosphere (Abou Dahab, 1978, Tropical plant database, 1996). Although Maidenhair fern, which propagates by division or spores, grows in partial to full shade on well-drained soils with high organic matter it does not tolerate dry soil (Gilman, 2003). They are planted as ornamental landscape fern for shade gardens. Although their Leaves and rhizomes are used to kill viruses, bacteria they are used for many medicinal purposes such as cough suppressant, decongestant, expectorant, menstrual stimulant, and for hair loss as well as there has been no specific research on this plant to isolate and test its chemicals compounds are such as Mesopotamia J. of Agric. (ISSN 1815-316X) Vol.(35) No.(4) 2007 triterpenes, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, carotenoids, astragalin adiantone, and adiantoxide, (Taylor, 2005). ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ـ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ـ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ــ ـ Received 16 / 4 / 2007 accepted 20 / 7 /2007 Boron is one of the seven essential micronutrients required for the normal growth of most plants (Keren and Bingham, 1985), and its presence low in sandy soils and in organic matter (Rosen and Eliason, 2002). Its deficiency cause a breakdown of the growing tip tissue or a shortening of the terminal growth (Vitosh et al., 1994 and Uchida, 2000). However, this element plays a big role in plant metabolism such as sugar transport, cell wall synthesis, lignifications, carbohydrate metabolism, RNA metabolism, respiration and amino acid (Vitosh et al., 1994). Marzadori et al. (1991) reported that after the organic matter has been removed the amount of Boron adsorbed by soil is considerably greater while adding organic matter to soil will increase Boron content and its availability to plants. Bin-salman (2000) found that foliar spray of boron on potato leaves with two concentrations 625 and 1250 mg/L have significant effect on plant length, number of aerial branch, dry weight of vegetative growth with the increase in concentrations whereas nitrogen and phosphorus concentration decreases. For potted plants production, the use of pure field soil is not recommended for the soil tends to become compacted and therefore, it decreases drainage and aeration so that soil must be amended or completely replaced with various organic materials, such as peat moss (Reed, 2005) or animal manures which are most commonly available organic material and excellent fertilizer for crops and forages, there material contains nitrogen, phosphate, potash, and micronutrients that are essential for plant growth (Savoy, 2000). Peat moss alone or combined in equal volume amounts with sand constitutes an effective for root substrate and assist in conserve moisture a help maintain a uniform soil temperature (Nelson, 2003). Yermiyahu et al. (2001) found that adding organic matter to sandy soils will increase Boron in plants, where leaching sandy soils will cause losing in Boron. Al-mukhtar (2003) found that there were no significant differences between the results which obtained from the growing of plants in media that contained a peat moss instead of manure. Conover (1991) defined that Pteridophytas growth is best in media that contains organic maters. Ponton et al. (1990) found that, media contains peat moss, are most suitable for nephrolepis plant. The objective of this study was to improve the growth of maidenhair plants brought from the high shady and moisterous locations in the northern areas of Iraq by selecting suitable and available media because of so necessary and valid for greenhouse producers, as well as, there were no previous studies in this plant. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was carried out in the greenhouse of College Of Agriculture/ Dohuk University during the period between 1 Sep 2004 and 30 Jun 2005. The plants brought from the high shady and moisterous locations in the northern areas of Iraq and planted on Sep. 1 2004 in (1×1×0.5) m woody box filled with Mesopotamia J. of Agric. (ISSN 1815-316X) Vol.(35) No.(4) 2007 sandy soil media and covered with plastic. When the plants give (2-3) branches they have been transplanted to (15) cm pots with two kinds of a mixture media. The first was loamy soil: peat moss (2:1 by volume) while the second was loamy soil: animal manure: (2:1 by volume). Physical and chemical analysis of Media has been done on laboratory of horticulture department in Agriculture college table (1). Two months after first planting, the plants was foliar sprayed with five levels of boron fertilizer (boric acid source) (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 mg/L) then was putted in greenhouse for growing. Nutrient concentration ranges for asparagus is 40-100 mg/L (Jones et al., 1991). The suggested rate for foliage application is 137 and 46 gram of boron in 135 litters of water per acre 1018, 341 mg/L for highly and low to medium responsive crops consecutively (Vitosh et al., 1994). All required agricultural managements were carried out as usually recommended for foliage plant production. The statistical layout of this experiment was Random Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicated each one 4 pots. The recorded data, at the end of experiment after 7 months of planting, are vegetative dry weight , root dry weight , leaf length, leaves number and chemical analysis was done for the determination of nitrogen (Modified Micro-Kjeldahi) as described by Black (1965), phosphorus as describe by Matt (1970) with use of Spectrophotometer, and boron with Carmine Method which is described by Black (1965). The data, however, were statistically analyzed using Duncan Multiple test at 5% level (SAS, 1996). Table (1): physical and chemical properties of the media. Soil characters Media kind loamy soil : peat moss loamy soil : animals manure