3Agricultural Microbiology Department, Faculty of agriculture, Minia University, Minia, Egypt.
Abstract
Driven by spreading Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) cultivation for increasing food production and to reduce environmental risks of intensive inorganic fertilization, the target of this research is to evaluate the influences of using potassium humate as organic fertilizer on soil properties, microbial activities, and yield components of Jerusalem artichoke and to see if the removal of immature flowers will affect the plant growth. To achieve this target, Jerusalem artichoke tubers were planted in clay loam soil during two successive summer seasons of 2014 and 2015 in the Middle Egypt. Results showed that using potassium humate at a rate of 5 kg ha-1 in combination with full or half the recommended dose of NPK fertilizers increased the microbial and enzymatic activities in soil and promoted soil fertility which resulted in increasing nutrients uptake, enhancing the vegetative growth and increasing tubers and foliage yields of sunchoke. Also, using potassium humate along with cutting the immature flowers from the sunchoke plants increased the enzymes activities compared to those plants left with flowers until harvesting their tubers. Moreover, using potassium humate plus only 50% of NPK and/or removal of immature flowers showed the best desirable characteristics comparing to using the expensive full dose of NPK separately. The use of potassium humate as organic fertilizer is recommended to replace partially chemical fertilizer. These findings encourage the economic cultivation of Jerusalem artichoke in Egypt.
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