STUDY EFFECTS OF NITROGEN FERTILIZER MANAGEMENT UNDER NANO IRON CHELATE FOLIAR SPRAYING ON YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF EGGPLANT (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

A field experiments was conducted during growing season of 2011 in Astaneh Ashrafiyeh Township (north of Iran), to investigate the application of nitrogen fertilizer and nano iron chelate fertilizer on Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). Factors of experiment was consist of nano iron chelate fertilizer foliar spraying in three levels (I1: control (without foliar spraying of nano iron chelate fertilizer), I2: 1 g/L and I3: 2 g/L foliar spraying) and nitrogen fertilizer management with four levels (N1: control (without nitrogen fertilizer application), N2: 30 kg/ha, N3: 60 kg/ha and N4: 90 kg/ha pure nitrogen from source of urea (46% pure nitrogen)). In maturity time, fruit yield, number of fruits per plant, plant height, number of branches per plant, fruit length and fruit width were measured. Application of nitrogen and iron fertilizer showed significant effects on all studied traits at 1% probability level. Interaction effect of nitrogen and iron on fruit yield, number of fruits per plant, plant height and number of branches per plant showed significant differences at 5% probability level. Between nitrogen treatments, application of 60 kg/ha nitrogen and between nano iron treatments, foliar spraying of 2 g/L nano iron chelate, respectively with 34.63 and 38.03 ton/ha were recorded the highest fruit yield between other treatments in this study.