Effect of Adding Compost and Sand to the Calcareous Soil on the Growth and Flowering of Lantana Plant

Hassan, Badreya, A.; Khattab, Mohamoud; El-Kiey, Tarek; Wededa, Bothaina

doi:10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2015.2836

Effect of Adding Compost and Sand to the Calcareous Soil on the Growth and Flowering of Lantana Plant

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Montaza Research Branch, Horticulture Research Institute, A. R. C., Alexandria, Egypt.

² Depart. of Floriculture, Ornamental Horticultural and Landscape Gardening, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University.

10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2015.2836

Abstract

The present work was carried out during the year of 2012 at two different locations of Maamoura and Montaza Research Branch, Horticulture Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Alexandria, Egypt on Lantana plant. This study was a trial to improve some characters of the calcareous soil with using two natural soil conditioners i. e. compost and sand. Each compost and sand were added alone to the calcareous soil at a ratio of zero, 25% and 50% or with using an equal mixture of the three materials together (33.3% calcareous soil + 33.3% compost + 33.3% sand) to produce six different growing media.
Lantana plants were grown in 25 cm diameter clay pots on 15 March 2012 and they left to grow vegetatively for 45 days, then the plants were arranged in an experiment of randomized complete block design and they stayed for seven months for evaluation.
Results revealed that using calcareous soil alone or mixed with sand at 25% or 50% gave the lowest values of most of the studied parameters of Lantana plant (vegetative growth, flower characteristics, and chemical analysis of plant leaves).
Besides, adding compost at 25% or 50% to the calcareous soil led to significant increase in almost all the studied parameters of Lantana plant, compared with using calcareous soil alone.
Furthermore, using an equal mixture of the three materials had no significant effects on the vegetative growth or the flowing characteristics of Lantana plant, while the content of Lantana leaves of chlorophyll, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc were significantly increased, compared with using calcareous soil alone.
From the previous results it can be recommended to add compost at 25% to the calcareous soil for obtaining a suitable growing medium for planting and growing Lantana plant with good quality.

Main Subjects