THE EFFECT OF PLANTING MEDIA AND FOLIAR FEEDING WITH SEAWEED EXTRACT ON THE GROWTH OF PEPPER PLANTS

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in one of private farms which is located in Baquba district of diyala Governorate with coordinates 33°44'41"N 44°38′37″E to study the effect of seaweed extract on the growth of pepper Capsicum annuum var. Crystal. The study included two factors: the planting media, which is peat moss medium and a mixture of peat moss and sand, and the second factor was seaweed extract at four levels 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5 g l^-1. The experiment was conducted using the complete randomized block design (RCBD), and the experimental units were distributed randomly on three blocks, and plastic pots were used in the experiment. The seaweed extract was sprayed when the plants reaches the fourth fully mature leaf stage, and the second spray 30 days after the first spray. The results showed that the treatment of the peat moss media was significantly superior to the other media (mixture of peat moss and sand). The results also show that seaweed extract treatment was significantly superior to the concentration of 7.5 gm^-1 over the rest of the treatments in the characteristics of plant height 35.00cm, number of leaves of 79.83 leaf.plant^-1 , number of branches of 16 breanch.plant^-1, relative chlorophyll content of 56.31 spad, and leaf area of 268.21dm² , while the concentration of 5 gm ^-1 was superior in the fresh weight of 42.00 gm.plant^-1.