RESPONSE OF SEASHORE PASPALUM TURF TO SOME FERTILIZATION TREATMENTS

A study was consummated in the open field at the Experimental Farm of Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt during 2013 and 2014 seasons to explore the response of seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swartz) turf plants cultivated in 40-cm-diameter plastic pots filled with about 6 kg of sand and clay mixture (1:1, v/v) to some fertilization treatments, viz., the humic acid liquid fertilizer at 20 ml/l, as well as diatomite powder and the commercial complete fertilizer (NPK + micronutrients) at 1 g/l for each, and also to the combined treatments between 20 ml/l humic acid and one of the abovenamed products at 1 g/l for each, when applied with irrigation water (fertigation), five times with one month interval. The obtained results showed that all individual fertigation treatments significantly improved means of all vegetative growth traits over control ones in the two seasons, but the highest means were attained by humic acid, moringa leaf powder and the commercial complete fertilizer treatments which gave averages closely near together with non-significant differences among themselves in most cases of the two seasons. However, the least improvement was found due to the sole application of diatomite powder at 1 g/l. On the other side, the combining between humic acid (20 ml/l) and any one of the other fertilizers (at 1 g/l for each) induced an additional improvement in all growth characters, with the prevalence of the connecting between humic acid at 20 ml/l and moringa leaf powder at 1 g/l, as such combination resulted the tallest plants, the highest No. plants/pot, the best coverage and the heaviest fresh and dry weights in most instances of both seasons. A similar trend was also observed as well regarding the content of chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, N, P, K, total soluble sugars and total indoles. The opposite was the right concerning total phenols content, which was slightly affected by the most of individual and combined treatments applied in this study, except for 1 g/l complete fertilizer treatment, alone or in combination with 20 ml/l humic acid one that elevated such component to the maximum values in the two seasons, as well as the combination of humic acid at 20 ml/l + moringa leaf powder at 1 g/l that gave a contrary trend by reducing content of this constituent to the minimum values in both seasons. So, it is advised to fertigate seashore paspalum turf grown in sand and clay mixture (1:1, v/v) with humic acid liquid fertilizer at 20 ml/l plus moringa leaf powder at 1 g/l, five times with one month interval to get the best growth performance, density, colour and quality