Response of Cauliflower Plants to Different Types of Organic Fertilization and Soil Mulching

• Raid Salih Sultan Ghassan Jayed Zaidan

  Author

This study was conducted at the Research Station of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Engineering / College of Agriculture / University of Tikrit for the agricultural season 2025-2026 autumn to investigate the effect of different types of fertilization and soil mulching using plastic of different colors on the growth and yield of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis). The experiment included two factors. The first factor was fertilization, which comprised five treatments: sheep manure, poultry manure, cattle manure, chemical fertilizer, and bio-fertilizer. The second factor was soil mulching with plastic, which included three treatments: yellow mulch, black mulch, and no mulch. The experiment was conducted according to a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Means were compared using the Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) at a 5% probability level. The results showed the following: Plants treated with poultry manure excelled in vegetative growth traits such as relative chlorophyll content, while in yield traits, they excelled in curd weight and total yield. Meanwhile, the cattle manure treatment excelled in leaf area. The biofertilizer treatment gave superior results in the number of leaves and root dry matter. At the same time, among the soil mulching treatments, the yellow mulch gave superior results in many vegetative traits, including number of leaves, leaf area, and width of the largest leaf, as well as yield traits such as curd stalk length, curd stalk diameter, curd circumference, curd weight, curd length, and total yield. The yellow mulch gave a significant increase in total yield, reaching 27.72% and 119.86% compared to black mulch and no mulch, respectively. The interaction treatment of poultry manure with yellow mulch excelled in total yield traits, including curd circumference, curd weight, total yield, and curd diameter, while the interaction of cattle manure with yellow mulch gave a significant superiority in leaf area. The interaction of sheep manure with black mulch excelled in curd stalk diameter. The interaction between biofertilizer and no mulch excelled in many chemical traits, including the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the leaves

• pdf