Effect of foliar application chitosan, nitrogen, and humic acid on the mineral content of young pomegranate trees. c.v. Salimi

• Koucher Nizam Mohammad 1 and Raad Ahmed Medan 2

  Author

           The experiment was conducted in one of the deciduous fruit orchards (pomegranate field) at the Agricultural Research and Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture - Kirkuk University, located in the Al-Sayada area during the 2025 growing season in Kirkuk Governorate/ Iraq, from 15/4/2025 to 1/12/2025, on young pomegranate trees of the Salimi variety, aged (two years). To determine the improvement of the chemical properties of young pomegranate trees of the Salimi variety in their early stages of growth in the orchard, spraying the first factor, chitosan, at concentrations of (0, 100, 200) mg L ^{- 1}, the second factor, nitrogen, at concentrations of (4, 8) g L ^{- 1}, and humic acid at concentrations of (6, 3) g L ^{- 1}, in addition to a control treatment, (60) pomegranate trees with good vegetative growth and free from diseases and insects were selected. The experiment was carried out according to R.C.B.D (Randomized Complete Block Design) within factorial experiments with two factors and four replicates, and the treatments were randomly distributed within each replicate of the experimental unit. The results showed that spraying chitosan at a concentration of 200 mg L^-1 led to a significant improvement in most of the chemical properties represented by (the total chlorophyll content of the leaves, the nitrogen percentage in the leaves, the phosphorus percentage in the leaves, the potassium percentage in the leaves, the total sugars in the branches, and the protein in the leaves), which amount to (18.35 mg/100 g^-1 fresh weight, 0.85%, 0.13%, 2.74%, 7.58%, 5.30%) respectively. Spraying with nitrogen at a concentration of 8 g L ^-1 led to a significant improvement in the trait (nitrogen content in leaves, phosphorus content in leaves and protein content in leaves), reaching (1.25%, 0.12% and 7.79%) respectively, while spraying with humic acid at a concentration of 6 g L ^{– 1} led to a significant improvement in the trait (total chlorophyll content of leaves). The percentage of potassium in the leaves and the percentage of total sugars in the branches were (17.75 mg/100 g ^{- 1} fresh weight, 2.53% and 7.24%) respectively

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