Response of Melia dubia Cav. trees to Humic acid and NPK fertilization and their effect on vegetative traits and mineral content

• Nasr Shukri Drar Al-Alosi 1*, Hadi Mokhlef Mohamed 2 , Rawaa Abd Bashaer Saeed 3, Ammar Fakhre Khudair 4

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This experiment was conducted on Melia dubia Cav. to know the response of some vegetative growth traits and chlorophyll and mineral content of leaves to levels of humic and NPK fertilizers. The experiment was designed according to a randomized complete block design (RCBD) under the split plot system with two factors and three replicates. The two factors are: organic fertilizer (humic) and chemical fertilizer (NPK) and were added at three levels for each (0, 50, 100) g.seedling^-1. The data were analyzed using the SAS program and the difference between the means of the different treatments was tested using Duncan's multiple range test at a probability level of 5%. The results showed a clear significant effect of NPK fertilizer on all studied traits (leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD), number of leaves, stem height, stem diameter, number of branches, percentage of each of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in leaves)  for plants treated with a fertilizer level of 100 g.seedling^-1 compared to control plants. The results also showed a significantly excelled of the effect of humic on the traits (leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD), stem diameter, number of branches, and percentage of both phosphorus and potassium in leaves) of plants treated with a fertilizer level of 100 gm.seedling^-1 compared to the same traits of plants treated with concentrations of (0, 50) g.seedling^-1. The study concluded that Melia dubia Cav. significantly responded to humic and NPK fertilizers at a concentration of 100 g.seedling^-1, due to their effective role in improving most of the studied traits.

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