Effect of Drying Cycles and Fertilization on the Vegetative Growth of Aloe (Aloe veraL.) Plants

Abstract

An experiment was carried out in the nursery of the college of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology during the period from 23th October 2016 to 5th May 2017 to investigate the effect of drying cycles and fertilization on the vegetative growth of aloe (Aloe vera L.) plants. The drying cycle treatments consisted of irrigating the plants every 3,5,10 and 15 days, whereas the fertilization treatments consisted of spraying the plants with 1.25, 2.5 and 5ml of a per-prepared liquid fertilizer per a liter of an aqueous solution. The fertilizer consisted of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Magnesium (M) and trace elements (T.E). The analysis of NPK was 11-8-6 and the concentration of Mg was 100ppm. The trace elements were 50,50,25 and 25 ppm of Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu), respectively. Split plot was used with the drying cycle treatments assigned to the main plots and the fertilization treatments to the subplots. A completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates was used .The parameters determined were plant height, root length, number of leaves per plant, number of roots per plant, number of offshoots per plant and the weight of offshoots, fresh plants, fresh roots, dry roots, dry plant and dry offshoots. The height of the plants was almost the same for all treatments, whereas there were significant variations for the roots. However, the overall means were not statistically different. The number of leaves, roots and offshoots per plant were significantly affected with the 15 days drying cycle which resulted in the least numbers. The fresh weight parameters followed the same trend .Like-wise, were the dry weight parameters. In contrast, none of the fertilization treatments enhanced any of the parameters. It seems that it is better not to subject aloe plant to drought stress lest to affect their vegetative growth negatively