EFFECT OF NANO ZINC OXIDE AND ACADIAN SEAWEED EXTRACT ON THE GROWTH AND MINERAL CONTENT OF WATERCRESS PLANT, ERUCA SATIVA MILL

Abstract

The study was conducted during the growing season 2021-2022 in the fields of Education College in Qurna, University of Basrah. To find out the effect of using Nano zinc oxide and Acadian extract on Physiological and anatomical characteristics and active components of watercress plant, Eruca sativa Mill. The experiment included fifteen factorial treatments, which are combinations of five treatments, which are the control treatment (distilled water only) and Nano zinc oxide with concentrations of 75 and 150 mg l-1 , and seaweed extract (Acadian) with concentrations of 1000 and 2000 mg l-1 with three methods of use are 1- soaking the seeds 2- foliar spraying 3- watering with the concentrations of above treatments, with three replications according to Randomized Complete Block Design (R.C.B.D) using the least significant difference, to compare the averages (L.S.D) Significant Differences Test Least at a probability level of 0.05 by using GenStat program for final analysis. The most important results obtained: The plants treated with Acadian seaweed extract and zinc nanoparticles excelled in the vegetative growth characteristics under study compared to the control treatment (distilled water). In terms of plant height, average number of leaves, and average fresh and dry weights of the shoots, they were 100.11 cm, 15.22 leaves, 241.78 g, and 26.06 g, respectively. And the percentage of nitrogen element, phosphorus element and 2.44% and 1.45%, respectively. The results showed that the use of the foliar spraying method led to a significant superiority in the vegetative growth characteristics represented by the plant height, average number of leaves, and the average fresh and dry weights of the shoot total, reaching 87.332 cm, 13.933 leaves, 201.466 g and 21.89 g, respectively, compared to the other two methods of use