Responsiveness of Cauliflower (Brassica oleraceae var. botrytis L.) to micronutrients | IJAAR 2021

Author Name

• M. Irfan Ashraf, M. Mujahid, and M. Bilal Shaukat from the Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
• Bakhatawar Liaqat from the Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
• Mubeen Sarwar from the Department of Horticulture, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan.
• M. Abdullah from the Durum Wheat Technologist, Wheat research Institute, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

 Abstract

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis) a cool season vegetable which belongs to the family Cruciferae or Brasicaceae. It is grown in winter season. It is originated from Europe and developed from broccoli. It is a vegetable crop grown for its edible white and tender curd developed from short floral parts. It is very sensitive to low temperature and high heat. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of foliar application of boron, iron and molybdenum on cauliflower growth, quality and yield. The study was carried out in Vegetable Research Area of Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad in 2019-2020. Seedlings of 30 days were raised then transplanted to field in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) using three replicates. Different doses of micronutrients were applied as foliar spray like boron (0.2%, 0.5%), iron (0.2%, 0.5%) and molybdenum (0.1%, 0.3%) on cauliflower. The data for different vegetative and biochemical parameters including plant height (cm), number of leaves plant^-1, number of days taken from transplantation to curd formation, days to curd initiation to maturity, foliage fresh weight (g), foliage dry weight (g), curd weight (g), curd area (cm²), leaf area (cm²), curd color, vitamin C (mg/g), chlorophyll content (spad meter), total soluble salts (Brix°), yield per plant (kg) and yield per hectare (ton) was recorded and statistically analyzed. It can be concluded that among all the treatments T₇ (Mo: 0.1% + Fe: 0.5% + B: 0.5%) showed the best result for all parameters.

Journal Name

 International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research | IJAAR

Publisher Name

International Network For Natural Sciences | INNSPUB

 Introduction

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis) a cool season vegetable which belongs to the family Cruciferae or Brasicaceae. It is grown in winter season. It is originated from Europe and developed from broccoli (Anonymous, 2017). It is a vegetable crop grown for its edible white curd which is developed by short floral parts. Cauliflower is very sensitive to lowest and highest temperature but it grows best in cool area (Sani et al., 2018).

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis) is grown all over the word but mostly in Bangladesh. Recently in 2016 it was reported that China and India globally producing 25.2 MT of cauliflower while the United States, Spain, Mexico and Italy are secondary producers which are generating 0.4 to 1.3 MT productions annually (FAOSTAT, 2017). Among all these countries, Pakistan is 10th producer of cauliflower, generating 209010 tonnes production by 11420 hectare cultivated area annually (Anjum et al., 2016). Cauliflower is a very tasty crop which is a source of different vitamins including thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinic acid and minerals like magnesium and calcium and a good amount of proteins as well (Yadav et al., 2014). Most of the crops need macro and micronutrients in specific amounts to grow well and to produce maximum production as well. The micronutrients are very important as macronutrients. Plant needs micronutrients in small amount that are required to produce good growth, quality and yield of the crop. Their trace amount can efficiently increase the overall crop production (Yadav et al., 2018).

The micronutrients that are needed to plants in trace amount are boron, copper, manganese, iron, zinc, molybdenum and chlorides which can be available to plant by soil, fertilizers or by other sources of these nutrients (Dubey et al., 2015). The micronutrients act as catalyst to improve the different biochemical reactions in the plant that triggered the plant growth and production (Karthick et al., 2018). However, deficiency of trace elements can induce different physiological disorders which leads towards the reduction in plants growth and ultimately in quality and production of crops (Sharma and Kumar, 2016).

Boron primarily improves the calcium metabolism and its solubility and also assists in uptake of nitrogen by plants (Pandav et al., 2016). Another microelement, the molybdenum is required to plants for nitrates assimilation and the atmospheric nitrogen fixation, it is also involve in processes of sulpher metabolism and proteins synthesis. Its trace amount positively affects the formation of carotenoids and also helps in translocation of iron element in plants (Das, 2018).

Iron, the essential trace element needed by plants for their proper functioning. It plays a vital role in chlorophyll synthesis and assists in uptake of other essential elements (Pandev et al., 2016). However, the micronutrients play vital role in better growth and development of crops. The production and quality of crops is decreasing, therefore micronutrient applications to maintain health of the soil, crop production and quality as well are the immense needs of the era. Micronutrients are helpful in improving growth, yield, fruit setting, post-harvest life of crops and resistantance development against stresses.

Therefore, the present research was conducted to examine the effect of different doses of micronutrients like boron (B), molybdenum (Mo) and iron (Fe) on cauliflower growth, quality and yield.
Source: Responsiveness of Cauliflower (Brassica oleraceae var. botrytis L.) to micronutrients

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