THE IMPACT OF LOCATION AND BIO-STIMULANT COMBINATIONS ON THE MINERAL CONTENT OF LEAVES AND SOME FLOWERING INDICATORS OF THE BANANA PLANT, GRAND NAIN CULTIVAR

Abstract

The research was carried out in two locations: Garmat Ali, Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, and Al-Hartha Research Station, Basrah Agriculture Directorate, for the two years 2021 and 2022. The aim was to study the impact of the location and bio-stimulant combinations on the mineral content of leaves and some flowering indicators of banana plants, Grand Nain cultivar. The experiment was designed as a factorial experiment with two factors according to a randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with three replications. The first factor is the cultivation location, which includes two locations: Garmat Ali and Al-Hartha. The second factor includes seven bio-stimulant combinations, between three concentrations of chitosan (0, 3, and 6 g L -1 ), two concentrations of Sitmplix (0 and 1.5 g L -1 ), and two concentrations of Biogrand (0 and 1.5 g L -1 ). The results showed that the location had a significant effect on the leaf mineral content. Al-Hartha's location was significantly superior in the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the leaves, amounting to 3.086, 0.2470, and 2.191%, respectively. As for the spraying combinations with the bio-stimulants, the S6 combination was significantly higher in the percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium elements in the leaves, reaching 3.663, 0.3003, and 2.946%, respectively. The same combination also excelled in the number of days until flowering, 321.3 days, and in the number of flowers, it led to producing 49.3 flowers plant-1 . The combination S6 was also significantly superior in the number of hands, as it gave the highest value of 7.33 hands plant-1 .