Investigating the Effect of Composition and Type of Chemical and Poultry Fertilizers on Yield, Vegetative and Reproductive Traits of Field Cucumber in Hamedan Province of Iran

An study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of poultry and chemical fertilizers on vegetative and reproductive traits and the total yield in field cucumbers in Hamedan province of Iran. The research project was conducted in a strip factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were Haiek and Royal cultivars, poultry manure including 0, 6 and 12 tons per hectare and chemical fertilizer including 1- 50 kg urea without micronutrient fertilizer (regional custom), 2- 109 kg ammonium sulfate without micronutrient fertilizer, 3- combination of urea, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrient fertilizers according to the soil test and 4- combination of ammonium, phosphorus, potassium sulfate and micronutrient fertilizers according to soil test. Analysis of variance of the data showed that the interaction effect of different levels of poultry manure with different levels of chemical fertilizer and cultivar was significant on male to female flower ratio, number of pickling cucumber yield, fresh cucumber yield and length of fruiting period. The mean comparison of the data showed that the use of six tons poultry manure cause a significant increase in total yield by 4.68 tons per hectare in both cultivars only when urea, phosphorus, potassium and complete micronutrient fertilizers were applied according to the soil test. However, with the use of poultry manure at the rate of 12 tons per hectare in all levels of chemical fertilizers, there was a significant increase in the yield with average of 4.29 tons per hectare in both cultivars. Totally, the use of poultry manure at two levels of 6 and 12 tons per hectare increased the production of cucumber fruit by 3.09 and 4.13 tons per hectare, respectively. Chemical fertilizer application based on soil test and in combination with micronutrient-complete fertilizer by spraying solution enhanced the growth traits as well as cucumber yield (at the rate of 2.02 tons per hectare) as compared to consumption of 50 kg urea without micronutrient fertilizer.