RESPONSE TWO APPLE TRANSPLANTS TO ADDITION VERMICOMPOST FERTILIZERS AND SPRAYING WITH ASCORBIC ACID ON SOME VEGETATIVE GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS.

Abstract

In order to investigate effects of vermicompost fertilization and ascorbic acid spray on some distinctive vegetative growth of two apple transplants (Ibrahimi A₁ and Sharabi A₂) grown in plastic bags of 29cm diameter, experiment was carried out at research station in College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, during the growing season of 2022. 162 transplants were used in investigation, which also included fertilizing the soil with vermicompost at three different rates (0, 1, and 2 kg per transplant), and spraying the transplants with ascorbic acid at three different rates (0, 150, and 300 mg/L). The treatments were allocated romly based on the Roomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), and the experiment was designed in the split plot order of three replicates. Results showed the stem diameter was the only typical vegetative property where the two apple types did not significantly vary, with variety A₂ being superior by a given stem diameter of 3.83mm. Vermicompost fertilization at a level of 2 kg per transplant^-1 was preferable for all attributes examined, and for ascorbic acid spray treatments, a concentration of 300 ml was used. L^-1 performed better at growing plant height, stem diameter, shoots number, and vegetative growth dry weight.