Growth Response and Productivity of Red Radish to Foliar Application of Amino Acid-Based Organic Fertilizer and Nano NPK Fertilizer

• Hanin Haider Ghazi¹ • Abbas K. Mijwel²

  Author

A field experiment was conducted at the experimental fields of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Design, College of Agriculture, Al-Qasim Green University, during the winter season of 2025–2026. The primary objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness of varying concentrations of an amino acid-based organic fertilizer and a nano NPK fertilizer in enhancing vegetative growth efficiency, improving yield, and elevating qualitative yield indicators of red radish (Raphanus sativus L.).The experiment comprised two main factors: the first was the organic fertilizer applied at four concentration levels (0, 1, 2, and 3 mL·L⁻¹), coded as A₁, A₂, A₃, and A₄, respectively; the second was the nano NPK fertilizer applied at three levels (0, 1.5, and 3 g·L⁻¹), coded as B₁, B₂, and B₃. The experiment was conducted according to a randomized complete block design (RCBD) as a two-factor factorial arrangement with three replicates, aiming to identify the optimal interaction between the two treatments.Results revealed a significant positive effect of organic fertilizer on all traits studied, with values increasing progressively with concentration. The 3 mL·L⁻¹ treatment demonstrated clear and significant superiority over the other concentrations in most indicators. Similarly, the nano NPK fertilizer significantly improved all traits examined, and the 3 g·L⁻¹ level elicited the highest response in the majority of measured parameters.A highly significant interaction response was observed for all indicators under the combined treatments. The interaction treatment (A4B3) exhibited marked superiority in vegetative growth indicators, recording the highest values for leaf number and chlorophyll content. This improvement was reflected in yield traits, where the same treatment recorded the highest values for fresh weight of shoot system, fresh weight of roots, and dry weight of roots, compared with the control. With respect to chemical measurements, the interaction between the highest fertilization levels (A4B3) maximized macronutrient uptake efficiency, yielding the highest values for nitrogen percentage, phosphorus percentage, and potassium percentage, in addition to enhanced carbohydrate and total protein accumulation. Regarding total soluble solids (TSS), the treatments (A1B3), (A2B3), (A3B3), and (A2B2) achieved the highest recorded values.These results indicate that the treatment (A4B3) was the most effective, contributing substantially to the improvement of growth efficiency and enhancement of yield quality in red radish.

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