RESPONSE OF PEPEROMIA OBTUSIFOLIA (L.) A. DIETR CV. VARIEGATA PLANT TO SOME FERTILIZATION TREATMENTS

An experiment was established under plastic house at the nursery of Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt during 2012 and 2013 seasons to find out the effect of foliar spraying with active dry yeast solution at 0, 1, 3 and 5 g/l, soil drenching with NPK mixture (2:2:1) at 2 g/pot and the interaction between each level of yeast and that of NPK mixture on growth and chemical composition of 3- months-old transplants of Peperomia obtusifolia (L.) A. Diter. grown in 14-cm-diameter plastic pots filled with about 1 kg of an equal mixture of washed sand, clay and peatmoss (1:1:1, by volume.) The obtained results indicated that various single and combined treatments improved all vegetative and root growth parameters with various significant differences compared to the control in both seasons. Active dry yeast alone at 3 g/l treatment gave better result than the other individual ones, whereas comparing between any level of dry yeast combined with NPK (2 g/pot) was more effective in improving vegetative and root growth of plants than all the individual treatments, the interaction between 3 g/l active dry yeast and 2 g/pot NPK recorded the best growth at all in both seasons. On the same line were those results of pigments content in the leaves reached maximum by 3 g/l dry yeast, but the opposite was right regarding the percentages of total soluble sugars, N, P and K content those reached the highest values by the level of 5 g/l dry yeast in most cases of both seasons. However, content of those constituents was doubled by connecting between active dry yeast at any level and NPK mixture 2 g/pot, with the prevalence of 3 g/l active dry yeast plus 2 g/pot NPK combination, that gave the highest content in the two seasons. Hence, it can be recommended to fertilize Peperomia obtusifolia cv. Variegata plants cultivated in 14-cm-diameter plastic pots with active dry yeast at 3 g/l (as a foliar spray) plus NPK mixture (2:2:1) at 2 g/pot (as a soil drench), 5 times with one month interval to obtain the best vegetative growth and high pot plant quality