Effect of Amino Chelates Foliar Application on Growth and Development of Marigold (Calendula officinalis) plant

Amino chelates represent the new form of chemical fertilizers for agronomy, while plant responses to these compounds aren’t well known. In this study foliar application of aminochelates on growth and development of pot marigold was investigated under completely randomized design with 7 treatment and 5 replications. Treatments were control (only spray of distilled water), soil applied NPK, foliar application of a synthesized macro-micro fertilizer, two and four sprays of Biomin aminochelate, two and four sprays of Delfon Plus aminochelate. The analysis of variances showed that the effect of treatments on N concentration (P≤0.05) and on the rest of traits (P≤0.01) was significant. Comparisons of means also revealed that there was significant difference among treatments regarding all plant parameters at 5% level of Duncan test. The highest plant height (24.1 cm), number of flowers/plant (7), flowering stem length (24.1 cm), plant fresh weight (20.2 g) and dry weight (3.01 g) and leaf concentrations of N (2.4%) were obtained in plants sprayed four times using Delfon Plus, showing no significant difference with soil applied NPK treatment. The highest number of leaves (22.4) and lateral shoots (4.2) as well as the highest K concentration (2.2%) was obtained from soil applied NPK, showing no significant difference with four times spray of Delfun Plus treatment. The longest (17.2 day) and shortest (12 day) life of flower on plant was also in four times sprays of Delfon Plus and control, respectively. In general the results showed that aminochelates sprays could be a good alternative for soil applied fertilizers for marigold cultivation.