Effect of agricultural media, bio-fertilizers, and spraying with potassium in the Growth of Gladiolus Plant

This experiment was conducted in the greenhouse belonging to one of the private nurseries locatednear the Federal Court of Babylon for the spring season of (2017), for studying the effect of threeCulture Medias of (loamy sand+ Peat Moss, loamy sand+ plant wastes, loamy sand+ sheep manures),three levels of bio-fertilizers (Without addition, Azotobacter, Mycorrhiza), spraying with Potassiumsulfate and at three levels is (0, 1, 2 g.L-1). The study was conducted as a factorial experiment (3 × 3 ×3) according to Randomized Complete Blocks Design (R.C.B.D), with three replicates, each replicatecontaining 27 treatments, and the averages were compared according to the least Significant differencetest (L.S.D) below the 5% probability level. The results of this study can be summarized as follows:The results showed that the treatment of (loamy sand+ sheep manures) was significantly excelled bygiving the best values for most of the studied traits for the Gladiolus plant. The most important of thesewere the plant height of (139.40 cm), the leaf area of (1933.01 cm2), The percentage of dry substancein the leaves is (25.08%), the percentage of carbohydrates in leaves is (7.83%), the flowering date of(88.76 days), the flowers number on the inflorescence is (11.35 flowers / inflorescence), Flowerduration on the plant of (10.20 days), vase life of (13.77 days), Corm number of (2.41 corm.plants-1),the results showed that the treatment of the bio-fertilizer (Mycorrhiza) was significantly excelled on theother treatments by giving it the best values for all the studied traits. The results showed a positive rolefor spraying with potassium sulfate. The spraying treatment with a concentration of (2 mg.L-1) wassignificantly excelled on all studied traits. In addition, the interaction of (loamy sand+ sheep manures+Mycorrhiza + potassium sulfate at a concentration of 2 mg.L-1) was significantly excelled than theother interaction treatment by giving the highest values in plant height of (161.44 cm), leaf area of(2749.36 cm2), percentage of dry matter in the leaves of (34.59%), percentage of carbohydrates in theleaves (10.71%), flowering date of (75.37 days), flowers number on the inflorescence (14.86 flowers /inflorescence), Flower duration on the plant of (13.77 days), vase life of (16.84 days), Corm number of(3.83 Corm.plants-1).