Open Access

ARTICLE

Types of Irrigation Water and Soil Amendment Affect the Growth and Flowering of Petunia x alkinsiana ‘Bravo Pinc’

Abdullah M. Algahtani¹, Fahed A. Al-Mana¹, Khalid M. Elhindi^1,2,*

1 Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Vegetable and Floriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt

* Corresponding Author: Khalid M. Elhindi. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Symbiotic Associations for Nutrients Management and Complexes Formation for Better Agricultural Crops Productivity under Biotic and Abiotic Stresses)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(2), 487-499. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.022850

Received 29 March 2022; Accepted 14 June 2022; Issue published 12 October 2022

Abstract

Water insufficiency is the hampering feature of crop sustainability, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. So, the effectual usage of all water resources especially underground brackish water represents the core priority in Saudi Arabia. The present study aimed to recognize the influence of different types of water irrigation (tap water as a control, salinized well water, and magnetized salinized well water) with or without soil amendments (soil without any amendment as a control, peat-moss, ferrous sulfate, and peat-moss plus ferrous sulfate) on petunia plant growth and flowering as well as ion content. Irrigating Petunia plants with saline well water adversely affected growth and flowering as compared to tap water and magnetized saline well water. Additionally, plants irrigated with magnetized water showed a significant enhancement in all the studied vegetative and flowering growth parameters as compared to those irrigated with salinized well water. Furthermore, mineral contents and survival of Petunia plants irrigated with magnetized well water were higher than those irrigated with tap water. Irrigation with magnetized well water significantly reduced levels of Na⁺ and Cl⁻ ions in leaves of Petunia plants indicating the role of magnetization in alleviating harmful effects of salinity. In conclusion, we recommend the utilization of magnetized saline well water for irrigating Petunia plants either alone or in combination with soil amendments (peat moss plus ferrous sulfate).

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