Response Of Growth And Yield Of Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) Plant to Algae Seaweed, Urtica dioica L. Extract and Zinc Sulfate Spraying

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at the unheated plastic house of the vegetable research farm of the Protected Cultivation Department in Zakho Technical Institute/Dohuk Polytechnic University on Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) during the growth seasons (2021and 2022) from 1^st September to 1^st April, to study the effect of three concentrations of Algae Seaweed extract (0, 4 and 8)  ml.L-1 three concentrations of Urtica dioica extract (0, 4 and 8)  ml.L-1 and three concentrations of Zinc Sulfate (0, 5 and 10) g.L-1. The results showed that there were no significant differences between seasons in leaf area (cm²), number of secondary heads.plant^-1, secondary head weight.plant^-1 (g), plant yield (kg.plant^-1), total yield (ton.ha^-1), and head weight (g). Using 8 ml.L-1 of algae seaweed and 8 ml.L-1 of Urtica dioica with spraying10 g.L-1 of zinc sulphate produced a highest total yield of 57.50 (ton.ha^-1). The triple interaction among the three factors had a significant difference, the best interaction was observed among Algae Seaweed 8 ml L^-1, Urtica dioica 8 ml.L-1 and Zinc Sulfate10 g.L-1 for all vegetative growth and yield characteristics of broccoli.