Integridad

ICHS2016/AB_101

Optimizing planting density for cut Helianthus annuus and Zinnia elegans Muhammad Modassar Sharif, Iftikhar Ahmad and Muhammad Qasim

Institute of Horticultural Sciences University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan Emails: [email protected] (M.M.S), [email protected] (I.A)

A study was conducted to optimize spacing between plants and rows for cut Helianthus annuus and Zinnia elegans. Seedlings were raised in 128-cell plastic plug trays containing coco coir, compost and silt (1:1:1; v/v/v) as substrate. At two-true leaf stage, seedlings were transplanted outdoor in thoroughly prepared flat beds at plant and row spacing of 15 × 15, 15 × 22.5, 22.5 × 22.5, 22.5 × 30, or 30 × 30 cm with plant populations of 40, 26, 17, 13 or 10 plants per m², respectively. For Helianthus annuus, plants grown at 15 × 15 cm plant spacing had the highest plant height and plant canopy diameter. While leaf area, leaf area index, stem diameter and vase life was highest for plants spaced at 30 × 30 cm. Plant spacing had no effect on number of leaves per plant, harvest index, fresh and dry weight of stem, flower quality and intermodal distance. For Zinnia elegans, plants spaced at 30 × 30 cm exhibited maximum plant canopy diameter, number of leaves per plant and number of flowers per plant which may be on account of availability of more space for lateral growth, while plants spaced at 15 × 15 cm had highest plant height and leaf area. Leaf area index, flower diameter, stem diameter, flower quality, internodal distance, fresh and dry weight of a stem, number of branches per plant and vase life were similar irrespective of plant spacing. In summary, plant spacing of 15 × 15 cm is better for good quality cut Helianthus annuus production while 30 × 30 cm spacing is optimum for production of cut Zinnia elegans.

ICHS2016/AB_102

Growth and yield response of chili to impregnated phosphatic fertilizer and humate Sobia Noor, Abdul Rauf Tahir, Muhammad Yaseen, Muhammad Awais Khalid, Muhammad Zahir Aziz

and Yasir Hamid

Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan

Emails: [email protected] (S.N), [email protected] (A.R.T), [email protected] (M.Y), [email protected] (M.A.K), [email protected] (M.Z.A),

[email protected] (Y.H)

Increasing population, high inflation, poor crop productivity and climate change increase the threats to national food security of Pakistan. Country like Pakistan whose economy is agriculture based is at hardest hit to adverse climatic conditions. To meet production challenges as climate effects cannot be tackled so innovations in research sector, advances in fertilizers, genetically modified crops and improved practices are needed. Maximum of applied inputs can be recovered by improving water and nutrient use efficiency. Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient and its use efficiency in our soil is very low (<15%). It is speculated that P availability can be improved by adding P solubilizing bacteria (PSB) or soil conditioners. Therefore, impregnations of phosohatic fertilizer e.g. DAP with PSB alone or in combination with potassium humate may be effective to improve P availability. To test this hypothesis, an experiment was carried out to study growth response of chilies to the impregnated DAP with and

without humate application. Impregnated fertilizer with variable rates was used with or without 10%

humic acid liquid (humate) at the rate of 10 L ha^-1. Simple DAP was also included as standard for comparison. Results showed positive effect of application of impregnated DAP alone and in combination with humic acid as compare to un-impregnated DAP. However, combined application of impregnated DAP and humic acid improved fruit length 16 to 30% , 19 to 37% increase in fruit yield, 13 to 71% increase in N, 38 to 69% increase in P and 11 to 47% increase in K uptake compared to DAP alone i.e. without inoculation of PSB. It is concluded that application of impregnated phosphatic fertilizer in calcareous soils might be useful to maintain P availability in calcareous soils.

ICHS2016/AB_103

Performance of tomato in response to foliar feeding of tryptophan for yield

Sobia Noor, Noor-ul-Ain, Muhammad Yaseen, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Zahir Aziz and Muhammad Awais Khalid

Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan

Emails: [email protected] (S.N), [email protected] (N.A), [email protected] (M.Y), [email protected] (M.N), [email protected] (M.Z.A), [email protected]

(M.A.K)

A dramatic increase in food prices during last decade brought in sharp focus on the critical need for ensuring food security in most developing countries especially to protect the poor and vulnerable households. Increasing population and high inflation divert our focus on a need to increase crop production to ensure food security. The targets can be achieved by investing in agricultural research and improve nutritional values. In this context tryptophan (L-TRP) is one of those amino acids which are essential for plant growth and development as these are involved in the biosynthesis of plant compounds. It acts as the main physiological precursor of the natural plant auxin (IAA) which involves in plant growth and fruit development. Amino acid can be supplied to plants through their application into soil or as foliar spray. Exogenous application of L-TRP stimulates auxin synthesis, plant growth and fruit development. Therefore an experiment was carried out to study the response of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants to foliar application of tryptophan. The experiment was conducted according to randomized complete block design. Five different tryptophan concentrations 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 mg L^-1 were applied as foliar spray with and without NPK fertilizers (25-50-50 kg ha^-1). A treatment without tryptophan (only fertilizer) was also included as control for comparison of results.

Data indicated that application of foliar spray of tryptophan improved plant growth and yield in terms of 25% increase in plant height, 50% more number of flower at different interval of time, 40% more number of fruits and 45% increase in fruit yield compared to control having no tryptophan application.

Results indicated that tomato responded significantly to foliar spray of tryptophan applied in combination with soil applied fertilizers.

ICHS2016/AB_104

Effect of foliar feeding of ascorbic acid on growth and yield of cucumber

Sobia Noor¹, Naveeda Anwar¹, Muhammad Yaseen¹, Muhammad Awais Khalid¹, Muhammad Zahir Aziz¹ and Saeed Ahmad²

1Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan

2Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan Emails: [email protected] (S.N), [email protected] (N.A),

[email protected] (M.Y), [email protected] (M.A.K), [email protected] (M.Z.A), [email protected] (S.A)

To feed the increasing population of the world there is need to increase annual crop production. The required increase in food production can be achieved if the necessary investment is undertaken in agricultural production are put in place. But increasing production is not sufficient to achieve food security. It must be complemented by new technologies to enhance food production. In this way foliar feeding of ascorbic acid is placed under experiment to check its effect on cucumber production.

Ascorbic acid, being a powerful antioxidant, involves in many metabolic processes, electron transport as a donor and acceptor and as a co-factor for many enzymatic reactions. It is also known to help in reducing effects of biotic and abiotic stresses like heat, chilling, salinity and disease stresses on plants.

Ascorbic acid as a foliar feeding may increase growth and yield parameters. To test this, a field experiment was conducted following randomized complete block design with four replications. Hybrid cucumber “Saad” was test crop and six concentrations of ascorbic acid (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 mg L

-1) were applied as foliar spray. Control (no ascorbic acid) was also included in treatment plan. Results indicated that all treatments performed better than control. Among all treatments, application of ascorbic acid @ 100 mg L^-1 along with NPK gave best result. This treatment increased fruit yield 70%, fruit length 18% and fruit diameter 8% over control. It is concluded that yield response of cucumber was positive to foliar spray of ascorbic acid along with soil applied NPK fertilizer.

ICHS2016/AB_105

Comparative effect of salicylic acid and calcium carbide on some morphological parameters of sweet peper

Muhammad Awais Khalid¹, Wazir Ahmed², Muhammad Yaseen¹, Sobia Noor¹, Saeed Ahmad³, Yasir Hamid¹ and Muhammad Zahir Aziz¹

1Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan

2Department of Soil Science Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture, Multan, Punjab 60800, Pakistan

3Institute of Horticultural Sciences University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan Emails: [email protected] (M.A.K), [email protected] (W.A), [email protected] (M.Y), [email protected] (S.N), [email protected] (S.A), [email protected]

(Y.H), [email protected] (M.Z.A)

The demand for food is increasing with the continuous increase in the world’s population. Food

security is serious threat as 17% of world population goes hungry every day. There is need to produce more and more accessible food. To enhance crop production use of plant growth regulators and their synthetic compound is gaining popularity. In this way, calcium carbide (CaC2) has occupied an important position as sources of ethylene (C2H4) for improving growth and yield of vegetables. But under critical environmental conditions, an abrupt release of C2H4 from CaC2 can impede growth and yield of a crop as it initiates leaf, flower and fruit senescence. If it is applied with salicylic acid, salicylic acid not only impedes C2H4 biosynthesis but also plays a crucial role in plant physiology as a stress hormone. As comparative effects of C2H4 released from CaC2 and SA are not thoroughly investigated particularly for production of vegetables, therefore, two field experiments were conducted on two different locations. Results of both filed experiments showed that application of 200 mg plant^-1 polythene coated CaC2 with foliar application 0.1 or 0.3 mM SA is relatively more economically beneficial and effective. It improved photosynthetic activity by 7-77%, plant water use and carboxylation efficiency by 10-211%, antioxidant and enzyme activities by 15-53% and finally fruit yield by 5-34% with a significant increase in fertilizer use efficiency compared to control. Additionally, shelf life and quality parameters related to chemical composition of sweet pepper fruits were also improved by the application of CaC2 with foliar application of SA. In a nutshell, results confirm the synergistic role of SA and CaC2 for improving physiology, growth, yield and quality of sweet pepper. Moreover, results also indicated that SA treated plants were tolerated abrupt release of C2H4 from applied CaC2

to a greater extent.

ICHS2016/AB_110

Optimizing planting systems for cut gladiolus and stock production Muhammad Behzad Rafiq, Awais Ahmad, Iftikhar Ahmad and Muhammad Qasim Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan

Emails: [email protected] (M.B.R), [email protected] (I.A)

Gladiolus (Gladiolus hybrids L.) and Stock (Matthiola incana L.) are high valued specialty cut flowers and have great demand and potential due to their diversity of colors, high quality stems with attractive spikes, uniform blooming time and acceptable vase life. Gladiolus is very demanding cut flower in Pakistan, while stock is now introducing as a new cut flower crop in local markets. To optimize best planting system and to encourage their adoption as a cut flower crop in Pakistan, a field study was aimed to elucidate the effect of different planting systems viz. ridge planting, raised bed planting and flat planting on growth, yield and quality of gladiolus and stock. Corms of ‘Rose Supreme’ and ‘White Prosperity’ gladiolus and seedlings of ‘Cheerful white’, ‘Lucindra dark Rose Double’ and ‘Lucindra Dark Rose Single’ stock were planted on different planting systems in two separate experiments. All three planting systems produced uniform quality with similar characteristics of growth, yield and quality of gladiolus. However, plants grown on ridges produced longer stem length, spike length; number of flowers per spike and fresh weight of stems compared to flat or raised bed planting systems. For stock cultivars, plants grown on flat beds produced stems with greater plant height, leaf area and dry weight of stems compared to ridge or raised bed planting systems. The greatest stem diameter, number of leaves per plant, total leaf chlorophyll contents, and number of florets per spike were produced by plants grown on ridges. Among cultivars, ‘Rose Supreme’ gladiolus and ‘Cheerful White’ stock were short-duration and more productive compared to other tested cultivars. In summary, gladiolus may be grown on ridges while stock may be planted on flat planting system.

ICHS2016/AB_111

The comparative response of radish (Raphanus sativus L. cv. Mino Early) regarding growth, yield and quality during first year of transition to organic farming system

Muneeb Ahmed Khan¹, Muhammad Amjad², Naveed Ahmed¹

1Directorate of Floriculture (Training and Research) Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

2Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan Emails: [email protected] (M.A.K), [email protected] (M.A.K)

Organic farming is gaining popularity worldwide due to its harmony with nature and the positive effects on human health. Usually the organic produce gets better market response in health conscious societies owing to the reported health benefits. There is tremendous potential for development of organic vegetable sector in Pakistan due to availability of cheap labour. A study was conducted in the winter growing season 2010-2011, to draw comparison between the recommended chemical fertilizer treatment and different organic manure treatments to estimate the response of radish during first year of transition to organic production. Chemical fertilizer sources applied to meet the recommended NPK requirements were urea, sulphate of potash (SOP) and diammonium phosphate (DAP). Organic manures included in the study were green manure (GM), farmyard manure (FYM) and poultry manure (PM). Organic manures were applied singly and in all possible combinations. Growth, yield and quality parameters were the focus of the study. Growth and yield performance of chemical fertilizer treatment was better than organic manure treatments. The various bio-chemical attributes such as TSS, TA, pH and vitamin C were similar in both farming systems. Among the mineral contents nitrogen percentage was significantly higher in chemical fertilizer treatment than some of the organic treatments while there was no significant difference regarding phosphorous, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron and zinc contents of radishes from both types of farming systems. However significant differences were noted among various organic treatments regarding these minerals. The overall performance of T8 (FYM+PM) was better than other organic treatments regarding growth, yield and nutritional quality. The poorest performance regarding growth and yield was exhibited by control which did not receive any of the fertilizer treatments. But interestingly control showed better results regarding dry matter percentage than other treatments.

ICHS2016/AB_112

Effect of harvesting time, stage and storage duration on postharvest quality of Gladiolus grandiflorus L.

Muhammad Saleem¹, Iftikhar Ahmad², Muhammad Aslam Khan² and Muhammad Akbar Anjum³

1College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Bahadur sub-Campus, Layyah, Pakistan

2Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan

3Department of food and Horticultural Sciences, University College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab 60800, Pakistan

Emails: [email protected] (M.S), [email protected] (I.A), [email protected] (M.A.K), [email protected] (M.A.A)

Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.) is the second most produced cut flower after roses in Pakistan.

Stems of cut Gladiolus ‘White Prosperity’ were evaluated in order to find out optimum harvesting time and stage along with storage durations for longest vase life. Fresh stems harvested in the morning and afternoon showed longest vase life (8.1 and 8.0 d, respectively). Stems harvested at afternoon and stored for one and two weeks gained maximum relative fresh weight (133.1 and 132.4% of initial fresh weight, respectively). Water uptake, number of florets opened, floret diameter, time to start wilting and ion leakage decreased as the time of harvest delayed and storage duration increased and was maximum for freshly harvested stems. Freshly harvested stems with no florets opened gained longest vase life (11.9 d). Freshly harvested stems with 1-2 and 3-4 florets opened gained maximum relative fresh weight (137.6 and 135.7% of initial fresh weight, respectively). Dry weight increased as the no of florets opened and storage duration increased. Total number of florets opened, time to start wilting and ion leakage decreased as the number of florets opened and storage duration increased. Water uptake and floret diameter were more for mature stems.

ICHS2016/AB_113

Screening of ornamental plants against salinity

Tahir Saeed¹, Muhammad N. Rasheed¹, Abdul Majeed², Abid Niaz², Abid Mahmood³, Muhammad N.

Zouq⁴

1Horticultural Research Sub-station for Floriculture and Landscaping, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Punjab 38850, Pakistan

2Institute of Soil Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Punjab 38850, Pakistan

3Director General, Parks and Horticulture Authority, Rawalpindi Punjab, Pakistan

4Directorate of Floriculture (Training and Research) Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan Email: [email protected] (T.S)

Present study was carried out at Horticultural Research Sub-station for Floriculture and Landscaping, AARI, Faisalabad. The underground water of Faisalabad is saline. The salinity results in accumulation of salts and ultimately stunted plant growth. An effort was made to assess the performance of ornamental plants like Schefflera, Pittosporum and Syngonium against different levels of salinity of Sodium Chloride salt through irrigation. The EC levels were 2 (control), 5, 10 and 20 dS/m. The plants of Schefflera were found to be most sensitive to the salinity level of 20 dS/m reducing their leaves from 155 (control) to 21 leaves under highest salinity level of 20 dS/m after three months of irrigation.

However, Pittosporum performed better than Schefflera showing comparatively tolerant to the salinity, maximum number of leaves were 286 in control while 141 in highest salinity level i.e. 20 dS/m after three months of irrigation. The plants of Syngonium also showed sensitivity to the higher salinity levels. Maximum numbers of leaves were 33 in control while 27, 15, and 12 number of leaves in 5, 10 and 20 dS/m salinity levels respectively.

ICHS2016/AB_114

Foliar application of zinc sulfate improves plant growth and fruit quality of Kinnow mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco)

Muhammad Azher Nawaz^1,2, Fiaz Hussain¹, Waqar Ahmed³, Saba Hameed², Basharat Ali Saleem⁴

1Department of Horticulture, University College of Agriculture, University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, 40100, Sargodha, Pakistan

2College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China

3Sector Advisor Horticulture, USAID, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

4Department of Agriculture Extension Wing, Sargodha, Government of Punjab, Pakistan Emails: [email protected] (M.A.N), [email protected] (F.H), [email protected] (W.A),

[email protected] (S.H), [email protected] (B.A.S)

Micronutrients play a vital role in many metabolic processes leading to increase in plant growth and productivity. The current study was conducted to improve plant growth, production and fruit quality of Kinnow mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco). Zinc sulfate (ZnSO4) and copper sulfate (CuSO4) at different concentrations were applied alone and in combinations (control (water spray); 0.5% ZnSO4, 1% ZnSO4, 1.5% ZnSO4; 0.5% CuSO4, 1% CuSO4, 1.5% CuSO4; 0.5% ZnSO4+0.5% CuSO4, 1% ZnSO4+1%

CuSO4 and 1.5% ZnSO4+1.5% CuSO4). The foliar application was done at the emergence of new growth flush (September, 2012) and repeated after 15 days. The experiment was laid out according to randomized complete block design (RCBD) and one tree was taken as an experimental unit. Lab work (fruit quality analysis) was conducted at Post Harvest Research and Training Center, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab 38040, Pakistan. To study the effect of ZnSO4 and CuSO4 on vegetative growth: number of leaves per flush, number of flushes per branch, flush length and number of flowers per branch were taken; while for reproductive growth:

fruit set and fruit drop percentage were calculated in coming flowering season (March, 2013). To assess the effect on fruit quality, various physio-chemical parameters: fruit weight, fruit size, peel weight, rag weight, juice percentage, number of seeds (healthy and aborted), TSS, acidity, reducing, non-reducing and total sugars were measured. The collected data was analyzed by standard statistical techniques. The number of leaves, number of flushes and flush length were slightly affected by the application of zinc sulfate. However fruit set percentage, fruit drop percentage, fruit weight, fruit diameter, TSS, Vitamin-C and sugars were significantly affected (improved) by the application of zinc sulfate at the rate of 0.5 and 1.0%, and it can be recommended to the citrus growers for further use.

ICHS2016/AB_117

Protective and curative impact of bio and synthetic chemicals on the development of meloidogyne incognita

Huma Abbas¹, Nazir Javed¹,Sajid Aleem Khan¹, Muhammad Kamran² and Hina Safdar¹

Huma Abbas¹, Nazir Javed¹,Sajid Aleem Khan¹, Muhammad Kamran² and Hina Safdar¹