{Influence of some organic and inorganic fertilizers on vegetative growth, yield and yield components of cucumber plants}

This investigation was carried out during the two successive summer seasons of
2009 and 2010 aiming to investigate the effect of magnetic iron, humic acid, compost
and amino acids with different application rates on the growth and yield attributes of
cucumber plant. Vegetative growth parameters such as,plant length, number of internodes on
the main stem, number of branches per plant, fresh and dry weights as well as number of
leaves per plant were significantly affected by all applied fertilizer types treatments. Since, the
untreated plants (control) scored the lowest values as compared with the treated plants. The
highest scored plant length values were recorded with 1.5 g/L humic acid in the 1st and 2nd
seasons. In both seasons, compost treatments resulted in the highest mean number of
internodes on the main stem. The highest recorded number of branches and leaves per plant
was associated with magnetic iron treatments in both seasons and all the applied fertilizers
affected the mean number of leaves significantly without notable significant differences among
them. The best treatment which caused the tallest cucumber plants with the highest number of
internodes per plant was weekly spray application of humic acid with 1.5 g/L concentration
but the highest number leaves per plant was caused by amino acid with 3 cm/L and humic acid
with 1.5 g/L respectively in the second season, followed by 300 kg/feddan magnetic iron soil
treatment but compost with 20T/F and amino acid with 3 cm/L were caused the highest
number of internodes in second season. The lowest scored average plant fresh weight was
observed with humic acid 0.5 g/L while dry weight was observed with the untreated (control).
The application of humic acid, amino acid and compost especially the high concentration
produced heavier plants than magnetic iron, while plants received amino acids spray
application scored relatively high plant fresh and dry weights with non significant differences
as compared with magnetic iron treatment. In both seasons, significant effect of fertilizers
types on cucumber yield traits under investigation was observed. The highest significant value
of number of fruits per plant was observed with magnetic iron treatments of 300 kg/F.
However, control plants gave the lowest significant value. The other fertilization treatments
gave intermediate values. The highest fruit weight was obtained by humic acid, amino acid and
compost m treatment with significant differences between the other treatments in both
seasons compared with magnetic iron. Amino acid and humic acid treatments showed
significant differences in the average fruit yield per plant compared with control. The highest fruit yield per plant was achieved with 20 ton/F compost treatment in both seasons.